


All At Once You Were Just Enough

by serpentsandtricksters



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Minor Violence, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23914420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpentsandtricksters/pseuds/serpentsandtricksters
Summary: Jester is a Fine Arts student who has been going down to the harbour to fill up her sketchbook every day, and for the last several months she has been admiring the handsome half-orc who visits the harbour weekly. She doesn't know his name or why he's there, but she daydreams about him often enough that her friends Veth and Beau are growing sick of it.When an impulsive decision from Veth forces Jester to interact with the handsome stranger, she doesn't expect it to lead to a series of events that end with him becoming her roommate - and maybe something more.
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Fjord/Jester Lavorre, Veth Brenatto/Yeza Brenatto
Comments: 72
Kudos: 285





	1. Chapter 1

The gulls sang as they dove for the water, wings spread and beaks open – then swooped upward again, cries triumphant, beaks full of chunks of pastry.

Jester watched them, absent-mindedly breaking another piece off her doughnut to throw into the water. Her sketchbook rested on her lap, pencil tucked behind her ear, a half-finished drawing sketched onto the page. She was sitting on one of the many benches along the boardwalk that lined the coast, watching the harbour in search of inspiration. The boats bobbing out on the water had lost their appeal. The birds were more dynamic, more challenging, but she needed to figure out exactly how she wanted to capture them. Wings spread as they soared along blue skies and blue waters? Diving for the soggy doughnut bits floating on the surface? Or maybe she would imagine them how they weren’t – cover ships with them or draw them pooping one someone’s head and laughing as they flew away.

Some days, art was hard.

She popped the last bite of doughnut into her mouth and grabbed her pencil again, flipping to a new page in her sketchbook. The pooping idea was funny, at least, and it would make for some low-pressure practice (and, honestly, Professor Artagan secretly preferred that sort of thing to her more serious pieces anyway). She was supposed to have at least one sketch done everyday, and the ideal was to have a filled sketchbook each month. Usually she could easily find something fun or pretty or interesting to put to paper when she visited the harbour, but the typical sights weren’t catching her attention today and…

Well, she had been hoping to see _him_ again.

Despite herself, Jester let out a wistful sigh and flipped back several pages in her sketchbook. It was silly. She knew it was silly. Beau and Veth had both told her it was silly. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and her heart wanted the handsome sailor she had been seeing out on the water the last several months.

Okay, well, maybe “sailor” wasn’t the right word. He seemed more like a scientist, measuring things and taking notes while he and another man took a little boat out onto the water. They both appeared to be science-y people, really. But she had only ever seen him at the harbour, either getting on the boat, already on the boat, or getting off the boat. So, in her mind (and her fantasies), he was a handsome, mysterious sailor.

And, yeah, she had only seen him up close a couple times, but that was really all she _needed_. The vibrant green eyes, the strong jaw line, the intriguing scars – definitely swoon-worthy. And a half-orc, which was rare in this area and made him even _more_ mysterious and _more_ intriguing.

She had already dreamed up several dramatic backstories for him, which was honestly probably not healthy, but whatever. It was fun.

As she looked back through her sketches, Jester bit her lip and lingered on one in particular. The half-orc was shirtless and stretching on the deck of a small boat, smiling and saying something to one of his friends. She had actually snapped a picture of the moment on her phone to use as a reference later, but she kind of preferred her drawing to the photo; recreating the picture meant she could filter out the unimportant stuff (his friends and the people walking by on the boardwalk) and emphasize the important stuff (him, his smile, his flat stomach and toned arms, the patch of bandaging covering a mysterious wound just above his right hip).

He was usually at the harbour every Wednesday around 2pm. Not that she was stalking him or anything. It was just that she came to the waterfront around the same time everyday, so she pretty quickly realized that there was a pattern to when he showed up, too.

But today was a Wednesday. It was 2:12pm. And he was nowhere in sight.

Birds pooping on people suddenly seemed totally lame and boring.

Jester was just beginning to consider packing up and going home when a flash of green down on the docks caught her attention. She sat up straighter, craning her neck.

 _It was him_! He looked upset about something – he was arguing with his ever-present half-elf friend as they got into their little boat. Seeing him scowl was strange; she was used to him smiling or looking all cute and focused. But he was still just as handsome when he was annoyed. Jester pulled out her phone and surreptitiously snapped a couple photos.

Soon enough, his back was to her and the engine on the little boat kicked to life, carrying the two boys out onto the water. She watched for a while, admiring his shoulders and imagining herself bounding into his life to turn his scowl back into a smile.

Then, giggling, she bent over her sketchbook and set to work recreating his handsome face. Maybe she would do a full colour piece later…

“Did you go talk to him after?”

“Well, no…”

“Jester, why are you hanging around the docks to see this boy if you’re never going to introduce yourself?”

This was the point Veth always brought up and, just like every other time, the only response Jester could offer was to blush and shrug. As much as Jester liked to obsess over boys and dicks and sex, she didn’t actually know how to, like, _talk_ to a boy. Well, at least not a super hot boy that she thought about kissing all the time.

Veth leaned back on the bench they were sitting on (not the one Jester usually sat on to people watch and sketch, but one much further along the boardwalk, where the water was deeper). “You said it was Wednesdays he comes by?”

“Yeah.”

“Around 2-ish?”

Jester sent Veth a cautious glance. Much as Veth was a doting mother figure while Jester was far away from her own momma, she was also a bit crazy and impulsive. Her sudden interest in the hot half-orc’s schedule was kind of concerning.

When Jester failed to answer, Veth lifted her chin and raised her eyebrows, her tattooed eyeliner making the petite woman’s eyes look big and dramatic. “Well, maybe I’ll have to stop by sometime. Watch you paint. Give you some tips.”

“I don’t _paint_ while I’m here – and I don’t need tips.”

“Jester, it’s been months and you still don’t even know his name.”

Jester rolled her eyes as she replied, “Look, I have a very detailed plan to––” But she broke off abruptly in her lie because, as she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, she caught sight of someone walking along the boardwalk toward them.

It was a very handsome half-orc, one hand in the pocket of his shorts, the other holding an ice cream cone. Jester watched him take a big lick of mint chocolate chip and felt her whole brain melt a little.

Before she could cover for her shock, Veth was whipping around to look in the same direction. Then she whirled back around to face Jester with a wicked grin. “That’s him, isn’t it?”

“No – yes – _Veth_ , please, don’t––”

Veth grabbed her hand and pulled her up off the bench. “Just say hi.”

“ _No_!” She dug in her heels. Her whole face felt like it was on fire; she could only imagine how ridiculous and purple she looked.

“It doesn’t have to be a conversation! Just a little walk-by. Smile. Say hi. Give him a little wink.”

He was maybe twenty feet away now, seemingly oblivious to their argument as he continued to walk along and eat his ice cream. Jester tried to imagine how she must look – wide-eyed, purple, probably super sweaty.

She pulled her hand free from Veth’s grip and quickly moved away, hugging herself as she stood at the edge of the boardwalk. She stared at a little sailboat bobbing lazily in the distance, daring herself not to look back and watch the half-orc as he passed.

Then weight slammed into the back of her legs and she felt herself tumble forward, off the boardwalk and toward the water below. She barely had a chance to hold her breath before she crashed into the bay.

The world was murky and cold and her dress was already tangling in her legs as she tried to kick, hands reaching for the dim light of the surface. A powerful ripple warped her view of the too-distant sun, the disturbance flowing over her skin – and then something was grabbing her, pulling her, the light rushing closer––

She broke the surface, gasping in air. It was a reflex to sag back against her rescuer in relief. Warm, strong arms circled her waist. A deep, unfamiliar voice asked, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, thanks so much, I’m––” But she broke off as she twisted around to smile at her saviour, her brain malfunctioning as her gaze fell upon green eyes and greener skin.

As she stared at him, open-mouthed, his brow began to furrow in concern. Tilting his head slightly, he asked, “Are you sure? You may have hit your head – you should probably get looked at for a concussion.”

Jester was pretty sure she didn’t have a concussion, unless it was possible to get one from proximity to hot boys. As she stared at him, acutely aware of his arms still around her waist and the fact that his light blue shirt was soaked and clinging to his chest, her dumb Jell-O brain could only summon the power to blurt, “I’m first aid trained.”

The furrow in his brow deepened. “Oh. Uh. That’s good. But I don’t know if you can assess yourself if you’re actually concussed?”

Oh god, how did words work? She was going to _kill_ Veth. “No, um… I didn’t hit my head or anything. I’m just kind of disoriented from falling, I think.”

“Are you sure?” His voice was filled with such warmth and concern that she wanted to melt – or maybe swoon like the heroines in the pirate romance novels she had been reading way too much of recently.

“I am _super_ sure. I just want to get out of the water and into dry clothes.”

“Fair enough,” he said, laughing a little. She could feel it rumble in his chest, which made her toes curl, especially since it was immediately followed up by him smiling _directly at her_.

Somehow, she did not pass out and drown, but instead allowed him to help her over to the docks and up out of the water. After verifying yet again that she was, indeed, okay, he said his goodbyes and wished her well before walking off. Jester must have spent too long staring at the muscles in his back through his soaked and translucent t-shirt, because the tour guide from a harbour cruise docked nearby came over and asked if she needed first aid.

Eventually, she pulled herself together and headed up from the docks to the boardwalk, then started walking home, feeling light as air despite her waterlogged dress.

She called Veth shortly after getting home.

“ _I can’t believe you did that_!”

“Okay, but it _worked_.”

“Veth, I could have _died_!”

“Only if he was a terrible person and didn’t jump in and save you! Now, the real question: Did he give you mouth-to-mouth?”

Jester felt her cheeks burn purple again. “No! I didn’t drown – I was still breathing when he pulled me out of the water.”

“Well, a good rescuer would have given you mouth-to-mouth anyway, just to be safe.”

“ _Veeeeth_!”

“Come on – this was an _almost_ perfect success. And I think he really likes you.”

“Because he didn’t let me drown?”

“No, because he threw away his ice cream to save you.”

Jester frowned, skeptical. “So?”

“So! He was really enjoying that ice cream and he just tossed it to the ground, no hesitation. Didn’t ask someone to hold it for him or anything. He just threw it away and threw himself into the water to save you. _That_ is love.”

Jester fell back on her bed, hugging herself and trying not to giggle. “Really?”

“Oh, definitely. I’m kind of an expert on these things.”

Veth was the only married person she knew, so Jester was not about to question her expertise on matters of love and romance. Unable to contain herself, she dissolved into giggles.

“You’re welcome. Now, come on – what’s his name?”

“Oh. Uh. I forgot to ask.”

Veth sighed heavily.


	2. Chapter 2

The next several days passed without incident. Jester obsessively sketched the handsome half-orc from memory, and even did up a painting in the style of a romance novel cover featuring both of them: his strong arms around her, shirt half-open and wet enough to turn clingy and translucent, while she was in a sheer dress with a long, flowing skirt, her cheeks flushed and lips parted as they stared into each other’s eyes…

It was a super hot painting, but it wasn’t going into her final portfolio for class. As cool as Professor Artagan was, even he would probably find it a bit weird.

Veth and Beau were back to being sick of her crush – Beau especially. The other girl had been dating her first serious girlfriend, Yasha, for almost as long as Jester had been crushing on the mysterious sailor, and her patience for Jester’s obsessive shyness was growing steadily thinner. But, honestly, Beau was a hypocrite because she had had a crush on Yasha for, like, _months_ before anything actually happened between them, and it had been _Yasha_ who asked Beau out. So who was she to complain about Jester’s shyness?

Still… Even Jester had to admit, staring at her paintings and fantasizing about the handsome stranger somehow left her feeling dissatisfied now. She wanted to hear him talk again. Her name probably sounded lovely in his deep voice.

Okay. So she would talk to him. She technically already had! But this time she could go up to him and thank him for saving her, ask him his name, what brought him down to the harbour – proper, friendly conversation instead of stammering like an idiot around him.

It was a Sunday night and the air had turned brisk with cool winds blowing in from the sea. Jester had already been downtown when she noticed the clouds beginning to burn gorgeous reds and oranges and golds as the sun sank lower in the sky. She didn’t have any paints or canvases with her, of course, but she had her phone – hopefully a couple dozen photos would do the sunset enough justice for her to paint later.

She hurried through downtown to the massive waterfront park that ran alongside a section of the boardwalk, where the view of the blazing sun reflected in the water would be least obstructed. The park was busy during the day with families and people out walking dogs and people like Beau going for runs, but in the evening it was much quieter.

She pulled out her phone and started snapping photos, then walked a little further along and took more pictures of a slightly different view, repeating the process as she slowly made her way along the boardwalk. After about fifteen minutes of this, her concentration was broken when something _splooshed_ loudly a few meters away. She looked over, expecting to see a bird or something that had landed in the water, but saw only fading ripples across its surface.

Then she heard someone muttering and swearing angrily. Another _sploosh_.

Curious, she moved toward the sound. The section of the boardwalk that ran alongside the park had large rocks leading down into the water. Most of them were somewhat round and precarious, but in some sections park management had carefully arranged wide, flat rocks to form natural steps. As one such section came into view, Jester saw an immediately recognizable man as he bent down to pick up a smaller rock, then hurled it at the water as though the ocean had somehow wronged him.

For a moment, she froze. She had promised herself she would talk to the half-orc the next time she saw him – but she had expected that to be on a Wednesday, at the harbour, when she was prepared for him and had dressed for the occasion and rehearsed and––

He swore loudly and threw another rock.

But he was upset about something. And he probably needed someone to talk to. And she was right there and she could maybe cheer him up.

Steeling her will, she started moving down toward him. When she was two steps down, she swallowed her nerves and tentatively called, “Um, hi? Are you okay?”

He jumped a little at her voice, turning to face her. Some of the annoyance that had furrowed his brow and twisted his mouth eased, leaving him looking somewhat sheepish. “Uh, hi. Sorry. Didn’t mean to disturb anyone – I can get going if––

“No, no, that’s not what I mean. I just – you sounded upset about something and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” She clasped her hands behind her back to hide that they were shaking and tilted her head, smiling sweetly at him.

Sudden recognition dawned across his features. “Oh, you got knocked into the harbour the other day, didn’t you?”

She nodded, feeling her cheeks flush as her memory was pulled back to his strong arms wrapped around her and the rumble of his laughter.

“Shit. How are you feeling? Wish I could’ve caught the kid who pushed you in.” He scowled, muttering, “Rotten little shit…”

Jester giggled and made a mental note to tease Veth for being mistaken for a kid again. “I’m fine, thank you.” Then, feeling bold, she took a couple steps closer. “But you didn’t answer my question. Are _you_ okay?”

His gaze fell away from hers as he waved her off half-heartedly. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

Biting her lip, she hesitated. He didn’t want to talk… But he was clearly upset about _something_. Taking the opportunity to study him while he wasn’t looking, she noted the worry etched between his eyebrows, the thoughtful but troubled downturn of his lips, his distant gaze and defeated posture. He looked so different from the laughing boy on the boat she had been admiring for so long.

Mind made up, she moved down to the rock just above the one he stood on and sat on its edge. The water flowed just to the toes of her sandals before ebbing away, a ghostly touch of biting cold. Smiling up at the half-orc as he watched her curiously, she patted the spot on the rock beside her. “Sometimes talking helps.”

He was taken aback by this, if his blush was anything to go by. After a few seconds of hesitation, he sighed and sat down next to her. “It’s roommate shit. School shit. Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Well, what happened?”

“It’s…” He pushed his hand back through his hair, seeming frustrated, and Jester caught herself wondering if his hair was soft or coarse. And why was there that little patch of white near the front? Did he dye it like that? Or was it natural?

Her thoughts were pulled back to order when he started speaking again. “My roommate and I are in the same program at university. We’re doing this big independent study – similar subjects but separate projects.” He shrugged. “Kinda hard to explain. Point is, we each hand in our own data and our own assessment. But when I got back to the apartment this evening…” His jaw clenched, and for a moment Jester thought he wasn’t going to continue. “All my project files are missing from my laptop. And my hardcopies and backups are gone.”

“That’s awful!”

“Yeah. And it’s all due next week.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Which means I’m gonna fail.”

“There has to be something you can do. What if you worked really, really hard this week to recollect all the data you’re missing?”

He was shaking his head before she’d even finished. “It was collected on a weekly basis. Looking at the data over a specific timespan was part of the project. I can’t redo that in a single week.”

“Could you retake the class?”

“Technically? Yes. Financially? No.” His gaze fell to his feet and he started biting at his thumbnail. “I’m on scholarship. Need a 3.7GPA or higher to keep it. Just needed to get through my third year and I would be in the clear for my fourth and final year.”

“What about your roommate? Can you use his data?”

“We weren’t studying the same thing. And he wouldn’t share it with me anyway.” He glanced at her. “Pretty sure he’s the one who destroyed my shit in the first place.”

“Why? Are you not friends?”

“I _thought_ we were. But…” He sighed again. “We got in on the same scholarship and the university changed how its distributed this year. They reduced the number of recipients it goes to, so now it’s steeper competition to keep it. Sabian probably figured I have better odds. We both have financial need, but I have better grades and more volunteer hours.”

“So he thought if he made you fail, he could keep the scholarship for himself instead?”

“Looks that way.”

They sat in silence for a long moment, the ocean rushing and flowing at their feet, the sun fading as it fell below the horizon. Eventually, Jester muttered, “What a dick.”

He snorted. “That about sums it up.”

But she wasn’t ready to give up on him or his problems just yet. She quickly replayed the facts of the story in her mind, grasping for some sort of loophole. He couldn’t redo the research. The hardcopies were missing. The backups were missing. The files had been deleted from his laptop.

Hm…

“You know, I’m friends with a pretty smart computer nerd,” she said. “He might be able to recover stuff from your hard drive or something.”

He blushed again. “I can’t afford any kind of tech support.”

“You don’t have to afford it. It’s a favour from a friend.”

He shook his head, rubbing at his face. “I – I can’t ask you to do that – that’s too much. I appreciate it – I really do – but I can’t ask you to do something that huge for me.”

Pursing her lips, Jester studied him through narrowed eyes for a moment. Then, smiling, she extended her hand toward him. “I just realized I never even introduced myself. My name’s Jester.”

He was watching her with a bemused sort of smile now, but shook her offered hand. His own hand was big and warm and calloused. “I’m Fjord.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Fjord! Do you want to be friends?”

“Uh, sure?” He laughed a little. “I have a feeling you’re going to insist.”

“Perfect! Now we’re friends. And I always help my friends when they’re in trouble.” She grinned mischievously at him.

He shook his head, lips pulled wide in a smile that made her heart flutter. “Well, then, I guess I have no choice but to accept your help.” He winked. “Thank you very much, Jester.”

Oh. Oh no. She’d been right – her name sounded _very nice_ when he said it.

She jumped to her feet, feeling giddy and silly and bold. “Let’s go then! We’ll get your laptop and we’ll go to Caleb’s and we’ll get everything all fixed!”

He was laughing as he followed her, and the sound buoyed her every step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple quick things to note:  
> -This setting is based on my experiences growing up in a coastal city in Atlantic Canada, so there might be a lot of regional specific stuff cropping up, and certainly Canadian-isms later on in the fic.  
> -I don't know a whole lot about studying sciences, so Fjord's university experience is based on me writing a thesis for my BA.


	3. Chapter 3

Fjord’s apartment building was in a part of town Jester normally avoided.

It wasn’t necessarily that she was _scared_ of the neighbourhood, exactly, but she’d never had a need to pass through it and wasn’t inclined to go wandering through strange, sketchy neighbourhoods without good reason.

Tall brick buildings crowded close together, many of the windows curtained with flags or bedsheets. A bottom floor window on one of the buildings had been smashed – probably not recently, since there was no glass on the sidewalk in front of it, but still no one had bothered to board up the hole. Fjord stopped in front of a building whose front door had been graffitied with something indecipherable in bright red spray paint.

He grimaced at the sight, glancing nervously at Jester. “You don’t have to come in with me.”

“Um…” Jester resisted the urge to look over at the crowd of guys smoking on the doorstep across the street. “I think I’d prefer not to wait outside by myself.”

“Right. Fair. That makes sense.”

After checking the parking lot around back to make sure Sabian’s car wasn’t there, Fjord dug out his keys and unlocked the front door. They stepped into a cramped entryway and he entered a PIN on a keypad to get through a second door inside, which led into a sour-smelling stairwell. They climbed a couple flights, their footsteps echoing thunderously around them, and eventually entered another door. This one led into a long, narrow hallway that was dimly lit with flickering fluorescents and reeked mould, weed, and old booze. He stopped at a door halfway down the hall, unlocking it and opening it slowly. Poking his head in, he glanced around for a moment, before turning to Jester and nodding for her to follow him.

The apartment was nothing remarkable. Water stains marked the ceiling and the thin carpet was an uncertain beige that may once have been white. But otherwise, it was a sparsely furnished and barely decorated little apartment, with a tiny corner kitchen and a short hallway branching off from the living room that had three doors along it. Fjord’s laptop was on the coffee table, but he disappeared into one of the rooms down the hall to grab the case for it.

As Jester waited for him to pack up and get ready to leave again, she had to quell the urge to start nosing through the apartment. What kind of food did he eat? What shampoo did he use? What did his bedroom look like? There were probably a million and one little things you could learn about someone by studying where they lived, and she was right in the middle of Fjord’s home.

But she was determined to be on good behaviour, so she clasped her hands behind her back and patiently watched him zip his laptop into its case. When he was finished, he tucked it under his arm and gestured toward the door. “Alright, I’m all set. Let’s go.”

Caleb wasn’t someone Jester hung out with often, but he seemed nice enough. Veth had known him much longer. Jester didn’t know the details – and Veth was very resistant to sharing them – but some years ago Veth had found Caleb when he was living on the street, alone and in very, very bad shape. He had escaped his home country after enduring something horrific and was still taking things day by day. Veth, being a doting and protective mother, had insisted on taking him under her wing and into her care.

Jester didn’t know any specifics beyond that, but she knew Caleb was doing a lot better now. He ate everyday. He showered regularly. He looked better rested than when she had first met him almost three years ago, though she wondered if the dark circles under his haunted eyes would ever completely go away.

But she tried not to dwell on all that. If he didn’t want people to know, then that was okay. She was just happy that he had found somewhere safe and loving and that Veth’s family had accepted him as one of their own.

And right now, as she led Fjord into the entryway and buzzed the Brenatto’s unit, Jester was glad that Caleb had turned out to be super, super smart and really good with computers.

It was kind of weird seeing Veth’s apartment building so soon after visiting Fjord’s. It was only about a fifteen-minute walk away, but the neighbourhoods couldn’t have been more different. The modest building needed its siding replaced, but there was no graffiti or broken windows and the park around the corner probably didn’t have smashed beer bottles and used needles littering the sandbox. Inside, the hallways smelled and looked reasonably clean. The lingering scent of a garlicky supper wafted from one of the units they passed, but it wasn’t overpowering or unpleasant.

Yeza answered when Jester knocked. “Oh, uh, hi.” He glanced at Fjord. “This must be––”

 _Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!_ Three neon orange Nerf darts fired past Yeza’s shoulder and hit Fjord square in the forehead. Inside the apartment, Luc let out a victorious battle cry.

“Luc!” Veth shouted from somewhere deeper in the apartment. “Stop shooting the guests!”

Yeza stepped back and ushered them inside. They followed, though Jester noted that Fjord paused to scoop up the Nerf darts first. They entered the apartment’s small living room, where two couches bracketed the far corner and a large TV shared a wall with the door. Sitting in the middle of the room, Nerf gun still in hand, was Luc – though he now looked a bit deer-in-headlights as he got a proper look at Fjord.

The tall half-orc moved closer and knelt by the five-year-old, holding out the three bright orange darts to him. He grinned. “Nice shot.”

Wide-eyed, Luc cautiously took back the darts.

Veth stepped in from the kitchen, hands on her hips. “Luc, bedtime.”

Jester expected an argument (especially since she was here and Luc knew she usually had candy), but the small boy nodded wordlessly and scurried off down the hall.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Fjord glanced between Veth and Yeza sheepishly. “Sorry. I think I scared him.”

Yeza tried to wave off his concern. “Oh, it’s fine. He just doesn’t see many… tall people.”

“… Tall people?”

“Yup.” And then Yeza – blushing and caught in an obvious lie – turned and hurried down the hall to check that his son was actually going to bed.

“Don’t worry about Luc,” Veth said. “He’s only seen half-orcs in movies, but that’s nothing for _you_ to feel embarrassed about. He’ll come around.” Then, to Jester, she said, “You wanted to see Caleb, right?”

“Yes, please! If he’s not busy.”

“I’ll go get him.” Veth spared a quick glance at Fjord (who had gotten back to his feet by this point), looked back to Jester, winked, and headed down the hall.

Fjord and Jester were left standing in silence in the middle of the living room.

“You’ve got a lot of interesting friends,” Fjord said quietly. A moment passed. “Thanks again for doing this.”

“No problem, Fjord. Like I said: I always help my friends.”

“Well, then, I’m lucky to count myself among your friends.” He smiled, and she felt an increasingly familiar flutter in her stomach.

Footsteps in the hall interrupted them and they both turned to see Caleb emerge into the living room. The older man had shaved recently, which Jester had learned meant he was in one of his better periods, but his shaggy red hair looked rumpled enough that she worried he may have already been in bed.

“Hello, Jester,” he said, voice soft. “It’s good to see you again.” His gaze darted to Fjord. “I, ah, don’t believe we have met?”

“We haven’t. My name’s Fjord.” He stepped closer, extending his hand in offer of a handshake. “Caleb, is it?”

Caleb glanced down at Fjord’s hand but didn’t take it, tugging the sleeves of his sweatshirt down over his hands self-consciously. “Yes, that is correct. It’s nice to meet you, Fjord.”

An awkwardness settled over the three of them as Fjord lingered with his hand outstretched, clearly unsure how to take Caleb’s response to him. But Jester quickly brushed past it, making her way over to the couches and beckoning the boys to follow, babbling about Fjord’s laptop and degree and terrible, awful roommate.

“And so then I thought, ‘Hey, wait, Caleb is super smart with computers. I bet if anyone could get Fjord’s files back it would be him.’ And now we’re here!” She spread her arms in a sort of _ta-da!_ gesture, which earned a small quirk of a smile from Caleb.

“Well, I can certainly try, though I make no guarantees.” He glanced to a clock on the wall above the TV. “I also don’t know how long this may take. It won’t be very interesting to watch.”

“Can you do it within a week?” Fjord asked, brow furrowed anxiously.

“Oh, _ja_ , that shouldn’t be a problem. But I don’t know if it will take an hour or seven, so…”

“Well, we can just leave it here and come back later, yeah?” Jester was sitting between them and glanced at the two boys in turn, a cheerful buffer against their mutual awkwardness. “You should still have my number, Caleb, so you can text me or call me whenever it’s ready.”

He nodded. “That sounds agreeable.”

“Does that work for you, Fjord?”

He shrugged. “I – I guess. It’s the best option I have right now, at the very least.”

“Then it’s settled.” She clapped her hands together excitedly. “Thank you so much, Caleb! You’re the best!”

After Fjord gave Caleb the password to unlock his laptop (“This is a really weak password,” Caleb had said. “You really should change it to something more secure.”), he and Jester left the Brenatto’s apartment and headed back out into the street. It was late. Stars winked down at them weakly and a chill had seized the night air.

Fjord stuffed his hands in his shorts pockets, scuffing the toe of his shoe along the sidewalk. “So, uh… Thank you. Again.” He gestured vaguely over his shoulder. “I guess I’ll head back to my apartment and wait for an update?”

“What if Sabian’s there?”

“I’ll deal with him just fine. He’s an ass, but he’s not gonna hurt me or anything.”

The thought of him walking back to his neighbourhood, alone and uncertain, made her feel much colder than the night warranted. Hugging herself, she said, “Well, what if Caleb gets everything fixed really quickly? We should hang out somewhere nearby for a little bit, just in case.”

“Uh… I guess?”

“Unless you have somewhere to go or you need to get to sleep early or something – I don’t know what your schedule is like or––”

“Easy, easy,” he laughed, cutting off her babbling as he held his hands up placatingly. “It’s fine. I don’t have early classes tomorrow and I don’t think I’d sleep well right now anyway. I just don’t really know where we’d go or what we’d do.”

“There’s a park around the corner. There’s benches and swings and stuff. We could hang out for, like, an hour or something and if we don’t hear anything then we’ll go home.”

“Sounds fine by me.”


	4. Chapter 4

It was a short, quiet walk to the park, which was completely empty this late at night. Crickets were singing somewhere in the grass, and a soft breeze danced through the branches of the trees framing the square, well-maintained play area. Jester immediately bounded over to the swings, threw herself down on one, and pushed off, pumping her legs.

Fjord leaned against the metal frame of the swing set, grinning at her. “Need a push?”

“Nope!” She kicked her legs out as she soared forward, the tarnished chains on either side of the swing whining in protest. “Come on! Swing with me!”

He sat down on the swing next her, but his feet remained firmly planted in the sand, knees bent high because the seat was so low to the ground.

“Aren’t you going to swing?”

“Think my legs are a little too long for that.”

Jester dragged her feet to slow her momentum, kicking up a cloud of sand. “You’re too tall to swing? That sucks.” She looked around at the swing set, frowning. “They should make swings for tall people!”

“I think the idea is to accommodate the actual children.”

“That’s stupid – adults are allowed to have fun, too. Someone should make adjustable swings so people of any size can use them.”

“That’s…” He laughed a little, shaking his head. It took him a few seconds to form a response. “That’s actually a good idea. You should talk to someone about that.”

Flustered by his compliment, Jester blurted, “What do you do for fun?”

“For fun? Uh… I dunno. Watch movies. Read books.” He shrugged. “Hang out with people. What do _you_ do for fun, Jester?”

“I mean, I do all those things, too. But I also like to prank people and play with Luc and paint and text random numbers to see how they respond and, like, build blanket forts and stuff.”

“Sounds like an exciting life.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty amazing.” She beamed at him. “But I’m sure you did all that stuff – maybe not recently, but at least when you were a kid, right?”

“Uh…”

“Fjord.” She turned her swing to face him, the chains twisting together over her head. “Have you never built a blanket fort?”

She could see his cheeks darken in a blush under the light of a nearby streetlamp. “I can’t say I have, no.”

“ _Fjord!_ That’s terrible! What kind of parent doesn’t let their kid build blanket forts?”

Jester expected him to quip back or laugh off her comment, but instead he had grown unusually silent, staring down at his shoes and biting at his thumbnail again.

“Fjord?”

“I, uh… I never really had parents.”

“How? Everybody has parents, Fjord.” The air between them was tense, suddenly, and she grasped for a point of levity. “Unless you’re, like, a really cool test tube baby or something and secretly have magic powers.”

Her joke earned the barest hint of a smile from him. “No. Nothing that exciting.” He finally met her eyes again, his expression carefully guarded. “I’m an orphan. Grew up bouncing between foster homes.”

There was no world in which she had expected that response. Even in all her wild fantasies where he was a tragic, romantic hero, she had never dreamt up that particular version of reality.

But he was watching her carefully now. Did he expect her to react negatively to this somehow? She made herself smile, doing her best to hide her dismay as she leaned toward him and said, “Well, you should come to my apartment sometime. My friend Beau and I have a spare room now ‘cause our old roommate Molly moved out a few months ago, and we’ve just been using his old room for a giant blanket fort.”

His expression relaxed. “I might have to take you up on that offer sometime.”

But her own words had sent her mind spinning. “Fjord… What are you going to do about Sabian?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” She squeezed the chains on either side of her swing anxiously, the cold metal biting into her palms. “Is it a good idea for you to keep living with him after he, you know, fucked everything up for you?”

Sighing, Fjord leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees, looking thoughtful. “I… I don’t trust him anymore, that’s for sure. But I don’t think he’s gonna _hurt_ me or anything.”

“That’s not a nice way to live, though. You should be able to trust your roommate.”

He shrugged. “Not much I can do about it, unfortunately.”

“You could move out.”

“Uh… Can’t really afford to do that.”

“Sure you can! Beau and I have a spare room and we both want another roommate, but we don’t, like, need help with rent or anything, so you can move in with us and be safe!” she said all in a rush, eyes wide with excitement.

“That’s, uh… I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll be alright. I’ve handled worse.”

“You should at least think about it. And I’ll talk to Beau tonight, too, to make sure she’s fine with it – which she totally will be, because you’re super cool.”

He laughed awkwardly, blushing and looking away. “Thanks. That’s very kind of you.”

“With any luck, you could have a fixed computer _and_ a new place to live by tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “This day has taken a lot of unexpected turns, that’s for sure.”

“But mostly for the better, yeah?”

His eyes met hers, expression softening into a warm smile. “Yeah… Yeah, definitely. Thank you.”

“Anytime, Fjord.”

They lapsed into companionable silence, his gaze still holding hers, and Jester could feel the blush building on her cheeks under his stare. The crickets sang all around them, the breeze dancing through the leaves of the surrounding trees and stirring their hair – making Jester wonder, again, if his was soft or coarse.

Then Fjord was clearing his throat and abruptly getting up from his swing. “It’s getting late. You should probably head home.”

“We haven’t heard back from Caleb yet,” she said, though she knew that was hardly a good excuse; they had no idea how long they should expect to wait for him. But she didn’t want to say goodbye to Fjord just yet.

“You can text me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of those clunky but extremely durable flip phones. “I can’t text much, but, uh…” He gestured awkwardly toward her with the hand holding the phone, blushing to the tips of his ears.

Jester gave him her number and he texted her right away so she could add him to her contacts. The whole time, she felt a strange fluttery sensation in her chest, though she knew he wasn’t asking for her number the way Beau used to with hot girls at the bar. It was just about being practical.

Still, she found herself repeatedly rereading the text from him as she walked home, giddy and giggling at the short message: ‘ _Hey, it’s Fjord_.’

Caleb called at 2am to tell her he had finished with the laptop. “It all looks in order now, though I’ll need Fjord to take a look and confirm that everything is as it should be.”

Jester couldn’t even be mad at him for waking her – she was too excited by the good news. She stopped short of calling Fjord, though. Despite him saying he didn’t have morning classes the next day, she still didn’t want to wake him up super early. So she texted him instead.

**Jester** : Fjord!!!!!

 **Jester** : Caleb just called me and your laptop is all fixed but he needs you to look at it to make sure everything is actually the way its supposed to be

 **Jester** : Call me when you wake up :D :D :D

The next morning at breakfast, Jester couldn’t stop herself from obsessively checking her phone, though the volume was on full and she knew she would hear if anyone called or texted. Beau watched from over her bowl of cereal, eyebrows raised.

“Expecting a message from the Queen or something, Jess?”

“No.” She bit her lip, holding back a giggle. “Okay, so you know how I told you about Fjord and his laptop and stuff last night?”

“Yeah, you nearly scared me shitless when you came in here squealing about it.”

“Well, Caleb called me super early to tell me it’s all fixed, and I texted Fjord, and now I’m waiting for him to answer.” To illustrate her point, she slid her phone over to Beau, the conversation with Fjord still open on the screen.

Beau’s eyebrows managed to raise even higher as she read the short series of texts. “You triple texted him right out the gate?”

“Well, yeah. I was super excited.” She frowned. “Is that bad?”

“It’s a bit much.”

Oh no. Had she messed everything up already? Was Fjord going to think she was super weird? Was he going to block her number and ask her to never speak to him again?

Jester was saved from her panicked thoughts by her phone dinging. There was a new text from Fjord.

 **Fjord** : That’s great! I’m free to pick up the laptop anytime before 10am today. Is that cool with him?

Jester relayed this information to Caleb, who confirmed that the timing was fine (“I have no plans to leave the apartment today, so whatever works best for him.”), and then texted Fjord again.

**Jester** : He says that’s fine!

**Jester** : This is so exciting :)

**Jester** : Let me know how it goes!

There was a very long pause before he texted again. Jester had set her phone aside, happily munching on toaster waffles generously covered in maple syrup and sprinkles, and she did a little happy dance when her phone dinged again.

 **Fjord** : Will do. Hope this doesn’t sound rude but can you keep it to one message at a time? I don’t have unlimited texting. Sorry.

Her face burned and she immediately started to text back – but stopped herself. Was she supposed to reply? Would that be insensitive to use up another one of his text messages? But if she didn’t reply, would he think she was mad at him?

“Beau,” she whined, “am I an asshole?”

Her roommate’s response was automatic: “No. _I’m_ an asshole; you’re aggressively friendly. Why? Is he giving you shit for triple texting?” When Jester held her phone out for Beau to read again, the other girl shrugged. “I don’t know the guy, but he’s probably not mad. Don’t worry about it.”

But Jester _was_ going to worry about it. She had already decided that she needed to treat Fjord to lunch or something as an apology the next time she saw him. She had to resist the urge to text him again to invite him out.

“Oh man,” she moaned. “This is going to be so hard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Telling Jester she can't triple text is like telling a dog not to wag its tail. 
> 
> Also, I don't know if it comes through in his dialogue, but for some reason I always hear Modern!Fjord with the Yeehaw voice.


	5. Chapter 5

It was a long time before Jester heard from Fjord again.

As the days ticked by, she began to worry that maybe Beau had been wrong – maybe he really _was_ mad at her for texting too much. And then her brain began to overplay and overthink their evening together. He had decided to leave so abruptly when they were in the park. Had she said something wrong? Maybe he had been trying to find an excuse to leave all night and she hadn’t noticed and then he’d gotten so fed up that he just abandoned all pretense and left.

She didn’t want to believe that was true. He had seemed so nice.

On Wednesday, she was too anxious and distracted to even sketch while she sat on her favourite bench by the harbour. None of the usual sights and sounds could hold her interest, her mind a swirl of questions and anxieties. Was he still going to show up? Was he going to show up _with_ Sabian? That seemed so strange, working alongside someone who he knew had betrayed him. And she didn’t know how he was going to react if her saw her there – she hadn’t told him about sketching at the harbour every day.

Sure enough, at 2pm she saw a familiar figure making his way down to the docks. The half-elf she recognized from before was with him, and though Fjord had never described him or showed her pictures, Jester was pretty sure it was Sabian. Fjord certainly didn’t look happy to be with the other boy at the moment, if his scowl was anything to go by. The two were arguing as they got into their boat and rode out onto the water, though they were too far away for her to hear.

Fjord never looked her way. All her sketches were subpar and half-finished.

Over a week later, Jester was sitting at her desk Friday night trying to finish a digital art assignment when her phone dinged cheerily. She didn’t check it right away, intent on finishing the section she was working on, and when she picked up her phone she expected to see a notification from her mom or Veth or Molly or even Caleb.

 **Fjord** : I know this is out of the blue but can I come over? Also where is your apartment? Sorry if this is weird.

Jester’s heart leapt to her throat. She bolted up from her chair and ran into the living room, where Beau was watching kung fu movies and drinking cheap beer.

“Whoa,” Beau said after one look at Jester’s face. “You alright?”

“Fjord just texted me. Look!” She practically threw her phone at her roommate. While Beau read, she paced and babbled. “Is this a booty call? Oh my god. Is 8pm late enough for a booty call? Or is that a strictly after midnight thing? Oh my god! Beau, I’ve never gotten a booty call before. What do I––”

“It’s not a booty call.”

“Are you _sure_ , though?”

“Yeah.” Beau held Jester’s phone out for her to take back. “8pm is kind of a weird time for that, and also he’s being super polite. No winky faces or eggplant emojis in sight.”

“But then why does he want to come over all of a sudden?”

“I dunno. Ask him.”

“Right, right, yeah, of course.”

She didn’t ask him. She just texted him her address, then sat down on the couch next to Beau and stared obsessively at her phone screen, willing a more clarifying text to appear.

Twenty minutes later, someone buzzed their apartment. Jester rushed to press the button by their door that would let him in the main entrance of the building, then paced the living room anxiously. She soon heard footsteps in the hall.

“Ah! Beau! What do I do? Do I look okay? Should I––”

“You know you’re always gorgeous. Just answer the damn door.”

The knock on the door made her jump. She did her best impression of a calm and rational person as she went over and opened it. “Hi, Fjord! What’s – _oh, shit_!”

Fjord stood in the hall, rubbing the back of his neck, one eye beginning to swell and darken with a nasty bruise, his lip scabbed over where it had been split.

“Hey, uh… Wasn’t sure how to explain this over text.”

“ _Fjord_ , what happened?!” She stepped aside, ushering him into the apartment. He stopped short when he saw Beau, his expression shifting through a complicated, rapid-fire series of emotions.

Beau squinted at him. “Wait… Aren’t you that guy who volunteers at the library?”

“Y-yeah. Aren’t you the _terrifying_ librarian who threatened to kick my neck off because I was half an hour late during my first week?”

She smirked. “Oh, yeah. That was definitely me.”

“Okay, cool, you guys know each other – Fjord, _what happened_?”

“Sabian found out I was able to turn everything in for class no problem. He, uh, didn’t take well to that news.”

“So he beat the shit out of you?” Beau crossed her arms and snorted. “What an asshole.”

Jester figured now was probably not the time to point out that her best friend was being a hypocrite. Instead, she grabbed Fjord by the elbow and started tugging him toward the bathroom. “Come on, I have a first aid kit. Let me patch you up.”

“Oh, uh, no – I’m fine. Really. This isn’t that bad.” He glanced at Beau again, a blush starting to spread from his cheeks to his pointed ears. “But I maybe shouldn’t live with him for much longer. Don’t know what he might try while I’m asleep.”

“Of course! We still have a spare room you can totally use. Right, Beau?”

The other girl had been sizing Fjord up during this exchange. After a long pause, she shrugged one shoulder. “Sure. Why not? You haven’t done anything worse than be late once, and Jess seems to like you. I trust her judgement.” She smirked. “Mostly.”

“Really? You’re sure?”

“Yeah, of course, Fjord!” Jester said. “We should move you out right away! Is Sabian still there?”

He looked taken aback and seemed to still be processing Beau’s easy acceptance of him. “Uh… I – I don’t know. I just got myself away from him and left. But I can’t move tonight. I gotta work.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, suddenly looking very tired. “How early is too early for you guys?”

“I get up at 5am every day to work out,” Beau said. “Hauling furniture can count for that tomorrow morning, if you need.”

“And she has a truck, so she should be able to fit most of your stuff in the back,” Jester added. “It might take a couple trips, but we can totally manage it.”

After some discussion, they decided that Beau and Jester would pick Fjord up in Beau’s truck when he got off work, then go straight to his apartment to help him pack and move his things. He assured them that he didn’t have much to move and it wouldn’t take long, and Jester wondered just how little he had.

“Thank you again – seriously. This means a lot to me.” He smiled at them, the expression seeming off-balance with his swollen eye and split lip. Jester wanted to hug him as tight as she could. Not even in a romantic way – it was how she wanted to hug Luc when he fell and hurt himself, or Caleb when she could tell he was having a particularly bad week.

He thanked them profusely again before leaving to go to work. Jester settled onto the couch next to Beau as she resumed her kung fu movie, and every punch on screen reminded her of kind eyes and bruised green skin.


	6. Chapter 6

It only took one trip to move all of Fjord’s stuff. His possessions consisted of a mattress, a Rubbermaid tote of clothing and outerwear, a box of toiletries and odds and ends, and his laptop and school stuff. Sabian wasn’t in the apartment when they arrived to move Fjord’s things, thankfully, so they were able to quickly move Fjord undisturbed. Fjord left his key on the kitchen counter and planned to talk to the landlord about ending his month-to-month lease.

Jester had hoped they could hang out after he got settled in – maybe all go for lunch together or something – but Beau had work, and Fjord had volunteering _and_ work, so by 9am she was alone in the apartment.

And that’s how it often was. Beau was usually around in the evenings, at least, but Fjord was almost always out. Even after classes ended and he finished his exams, he took on more hours at work, so Jester only saw him in passing most days. She tried to talk to him during those brief moments, to ask about his schedule and suggest nights the three of them could hang out together. But he always had an excuse or something to do that day or just didn’t have time to talk.

Maybe he was avoiding her. But how did that make sense? Why would he agree to move in if he didn’t want to be around them?

It didn’t help that his schedule became so backwards in the summer because he was working more hours. He did overnights, so he often left around 8 or 9 at night and came home at 5 or 6 in the morning and slept for several hours. There were a few mornings where Jester woke up and went out to the kitchen to get breakfast, only to find Fjord had passed out on the living room couch with his shoes still on. She would always tiptoe over, grab the fuzzy blanket draped over the back of the couch and tuck it around him, then quietly make her breakfast and sneak back to her room, careful not to wake him the whole time.

The temptation to take pictures with her phone was very strong. But it seemed weirder to take photos of him now that she actually knew him. He wasn’t a far-off stranger she was admiring – he was Fjord, her avoidant and mysterious roommate.

Mostly, she just found it strange how being closer to him made him feel farther away.

She tried to keep busy. With classes done for the summer and no job (her momma took care of all her financial needs for her), Jester had way too much free time and a dangerous level of boredom. She still drew down by the docks most days, but she had also started getting into some of her old pranks again. She printed off fake posters for events in real places and put them up on bulletin boards all over the city; she used spray chalk to redecorate several of the brick buildings on her mostly-empty campus with unicorns and smiley faces that looked like dicks; she visited the library and slipped weird notes and suspicious drawings into random books, giddy and adrenaline-fueled as she tried not to get spotted by Beau.

She also did nice things, like visiting the animal shelter to walk dogs (and wish she could adopt the lone weasel in the shelter’s care) and leaving surprise twenty-dollar tips at whatever café or bakery she had visited that day. Even though her momma – and Beau and Veth – had told her she needed to get better with money, she always felt like they wouldn’t be upset at her overspending when it was for something _good_.

She just wished she could do something nice for Fjord, like buy him a bedframe so he didn’t sleep with his mattress on the floor. Or get him a dresser. Or a nightstand. Or new clothes – she didn’t spend a lot of time with him, but she had seen him often enough now to know that his clothing was well-worn, faded, and getting threadbare in places. He had seemed uncomfortable when she offered to take him shopping, though.

“I know you meant it as, like, an act of kindness,” Beau had said when Jester confided in her about the incident later, “but he probably took it as pity.”

“It’s not pity, though! I know he works super, super hard all the time and he doesn’t have a lot of money for extra things. I just wanted to help out a little.”

“Right, I understand that, but he also doesn’t know you very well yet. He’s probably already feeling super awkward about the fact that he moved in with a random chick he just met.”

Jester pouted. “But I’m not a random chick. I’m his friend.”

Sighing and rolling her eyes, Beau said, “Look, just… give him some space, alright? He doesn’t dislike you or else he never would’ve moved in. But he’s dealing with shit and throwing money at him is only going to make him feel weirder.”

“What if I want to do something nice for him?”

“I dunno. Do something small that he’s not gonna make a big deal out of.”

It took Jester a while to think of what that could be. At first she considered doing some chores for him, but he always kept his room tidy and the only personal chore he regularly needed to tend to was laundry. Washing his undies for him seemed a little _too_ intimate.

She also considered doing up a painting for him so he could have something hanging on his walls, but she didn’t really know what he would like and she was nervous to ask. If she consulted him about it, he might get weird and uncomfortable over her doing a painting for him. But if she didn’t ask and painted something random, he might hate it.

Eventually, she decided treats were probably the safest path forward. Food was the way to a person’s heart, right? So she bought a one litre tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and tucked it into the freezer, told Beau to never ever eat it, and made a point to casually mention buying ice cream the next time she had a chance to talk to Fjord.

The tub was empty in less than two weeks. She took it as a small victory and made sure to buy more the next time she went to the store.

As much as they were best friends, Beau and Jester had very different tastes in TV and movies.

Beau liked super punchy stuff, with kung fu and high-stakes action and sometimes even a little bit of philosophy; Jester like rom-coms and dramedies, where real life was blown wildly out of proportion but always ended with a kissing couple and a happily ever after. It made it hard for them to agree on what to watch when they had marathon nights, so once they found something they both agreed on, it became their go-to show.

Beau and Jester both agreed that _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ was the tits.

About a month after classes ended, the two of them were curled up on the couch on a Sunday with popcorn and Starbursts and a few beers (for Beau), binging the first season. They had already watched the series at least five times together since becoming roommates, but neither of them had tired of it yet. They were familiar enough with each episode now that they felt comfortable chatting over it, pointing out Easter eggs or foreshadowing they had missed before, or joking about the things the characters on the screen didn’t know was coming for them.

It was a little past noon when Fjord emerged from his room, rubbing his face and looking like he had just woken up. 

Jester automatically grabbed the remote and turned down the volume. “Ah, shit! Did we wake you?”

“Hm? Oh, no, it’s fine.” He blinked blearily at them for a moment, seeming to suddenly register that they were in full binge-mode, and then turned to stare at the TV. They were on episode ten and had reached the moment where Katara discovered Jet’s deceit and betrayal. “Did she just freeze that guy to a tree?”

“Yeah, and she hasn’t even reached full-badass yet,” Beau said. Then she raised her bottle toward him. “Want one? There’s a couple more in the fridge.”

His eyes hadn’t left the TV. “I’m good, thanks. Beer for breakfast’s not really my thing.”

“Fjord,” Jester said, feeling a grin pull at her lips as she leaned toward him, “have you never seen this show before?”

“It looks familiar, but I’ve never actually watched it.”

“Oh my god! You _have_ to watch it – it’s amazing!” She was already sliding over on the couch to make room, excitedly babbling about the characters and the world and the magic.

“Okay, okay,” Fjord said, laughing and holding his hands up in a “calm down” gesture. “Give me a minute. I’m gonna get some food and then I’ll join you. How’s that sound?”

She squealed and wiggled in excitement. “You’re going to love it so much!”

They had to restart from episode one, and it was hard for Jester and Beau not to riff on the dialogue they knew so well or interject with their own in-jokes, but Fjord was enraptured almost immediately. As the credits rolled on the third episode, he turned to them and said, “Please tell me there’s, like, a hundred episodes of this.”

“Sixty-one,” Beau said. “And there’s a spin-off.”

“Can he do that glow-y power-up thing anytime he wants?” Fjord leaned across Jester to grab a handful of popcorn from the bowl in Beau’s lap; Jester could smell his deodorant and his morning coffee as he spoke.

Beau tapped her chin, faux-thoughtful. “Hm… I dunno. Jessie, does that count as a spoiler?”

“Uh, _yeah_ , totally.” She grinned and winked at Fjord. “You’ll just have to keep watching.”

“Well, then, let’s go! Next episode! Come on!”

They spent the whole day watching the first season, ordering in for supper so they wouldn’t have to pause while they made food. Seeing him react to all the twists and turns of the story for the first time was almost more entertaining than the show itself. As guarded as Fjord had been around her since moving in, he actually had a very expressive face – at least while watching TV, anyway. He laughed and gasped and cheered, especially at climactic moments, and Jester found herself suppressing giggles at his enthusiasm – like he was watching a football game, not an old cartoon. And his genuine horror at Koh the Face Stealer was as funny as it was endearing.

It was late into the evening when the credits rolled on the final episode of the first season, and Fjord sagged back against the couch with a sigh. “Fuck. I want to keep watching, but I should probably call it a night.” He rubbed a hand over his face and groaned tiredly. “My sleep cycle is so fucked.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna call it here, too,” Beau said, standing up and shaking popcorn kernels from her shirt. “Season two is another, like, seven hours, and I like to watch each season all together, you know?”

Jester was reluctant to let things end, but she didn’t have a fair argument against it. She knew Beau worked the next day, too, and far earlier than Fjord – she needed to sleep or she would be super cranky. She had already gotten in trouble for yelling at children once; it wouldn’t go over well for her a second time.

They tidied up the mess of takeout and snacks, migrating to the kitchen to toss things in the garbage. Fjord and Beau ended up leaning against opposite sides of the central island counter, discussing lore and fight scenes and which element was the most formidable. Beau kept laughing at him and teasing that he “hadn’t seen shit yet”, which just made Fjord more insistent that he understand the elements and their mechanics on principle, if not in practice. Jester watched the whole time, excited to see them getting along so well and that Fjord was talking so much after weeks of relative silence.

“Listen, listen,” Fjord was saying, “firebenders literally can’t be disarmed. That’s a _huge_ advantage in a fight. Literally all you have to do to disarm a waterbender is put them in a room with no water.”

Beau snorted. “Oh, how little you know.”

“But that’s how it _works_!”

“Water is in lots of unseen places, Fjord,” Jester said. Then, just to throw him off, she gave a suggestive eyebrow waggle.

He looked taken aback, as expected, but tried to laugh it off as his cheeks flushed slightly. “Well, what do you think, Jester? Which is the most powerful element?”

She offered a shrug and an uncertain noise from the back of her throat. “I don’t think there is one, really. It all depends on the person using it.”

“Which was the core of my argument––”

“No, no, no, no, no,” Fjord cut in, wagging a finger at Beau even as he grinned, “ _you_ said that water is the most powerful element and that––”

“In _nature_ , yeah, fucking absolutely, but––”

Jester had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at them.

They ended up chatting and arguing good-naturedly for over an hour, and Jester felt light and giddy when she finally tucked into bed for the night.


	7. Chapter 7

They didn’t often have opportunities to spend time together like they had that evening, but something shifted that day. Fjord lingered longer when they crossed paths in the kitchen, asking Jester about her day, about her art, about the animals she’s come to love at the shelter. And in turn he talked to her a little bit about work, venting about slack coworkers or sharing stories about funny fuck-ups. He was familiar and open again, that initial coldness gone from when he had first moved in, and Jester savoured these brief moments together even as her heart learned not to race just from being in the same room as him.

She still found herself resisting the urge to do silly things, like grab his hand or kiss the scar above his lip. But it was getting easier to see him through the lens of friendship instead of unfiltered infatuation.

He and Beau became fast friends now that they had actually hung out. Fjord teased Beau for her abrasive nature and how badly she fumbled her words, and Beau teased Fjord for his scrawny arms and extreme reluctance to join her in a workout. Jester was a bit jealous that they got to spend more time together because Fjord volunteered at the library every Saturday and some Sundays, but mostly she was just happy that her roommates got along.

Veth still insisted that there was more to it.

“He agrees to move in with you on a whim, he’s shy and avoidant for weeks and then suddenly wants to cuddle up to you on the couch and watch movies all day––”

“It wasn’t a movie; it was a show.”

Veth continued on as though uninterrupted. “He’s making a point to ask about things he knows interests you, he tries to make you laugh. Jester…” The older woman gave her a knowing look, eyebrows raised. “He’s got a big old crushie on you, Jessie.”

Even though Veth’s words had made her cheeks burn and stomach fill with butterflies, Jester tried not to let it get to her head. Being around Fjord so often hadn’t diminished her crush, exactly, but it had strengthened her friendship and helped her see things a little clearer.

Fjord was hot. He was charming. And now that they were past the initial awkwardness of him moving in, he was friendly. But she wasn’t sure it went beyond that. Veth was assessing the situation through second-hand knowledge – she hadn’t really _seen_ what Fjord was like around Jester. So even though she was the best expert on love and romance Jester knew, the tiefling wasn’t sure if her friend’s assessment could really be trusted.

Besides, she wasn’t totally clueless about that stuff herself. She had watched Beau and Yasha pining for each other for months. She knew what that looked like, and it didn’t look like how Fjord was around her.

All her sketches and paintings seemed silly now, but she tried not to be sad. Fjord was a good friend. She was glad to have him in her life, even if she longed for them to share something more.

It was late summer, they all had the day off, and they were all lounging in the living room, discussing plans to drive to the beach in Beau’s truck.

“You ladies go ahead. I think I’m due for a night in,” Fjord said. He sat on the end of the couch, one hand resting on the armrest, the other arm draped across the back, his legs spread just wide enough that his knee kept bumping Jester’s. The TV was on but muted; Jester wasn’t paying enough attention to know what show was playing across the screen.

“Dude, seriously?” Beau said from Jester’s other side, eyebrow raised. “It’s gorgeous out and we almost never have our days off line up. You absolutely have to come to the beach.”

Grinning mischievously, Jester leaned toward him. “Don’t you want to see us in our bikinis, Fjord?”

As expected, his face lit up with a deep blush. One of the things she had learned about him over the past several weeks was that he was actually super bashful (which only made him cuter, honestly).

“We’re by the water all the time anyway,” he said evasively. “I just don’t see a point in driving all the way out to the beach.”

“Because the beach has sand you can lay in and water that isn’t full of harbour pollution,” Beau said.

Fjord’s phone vibrated loudly on the coffee table, cutting off whatever retort he had been preparing. He grabbed it and flipped it open, reading whatever message awaited him on the screen. His flushed cheeks had gone much paler. He sprung up from the couch and started pacing the length of the living room, tapping rapidly on the little keypad.

“Fjord?” Jester asked after several long seconds. “Is everything okay?”

“Hm? Oh. Yes. Yeah. It’s fine.” His phone vibrated again, making him jump.

“You sure?” Beau rose from the couch as well. “’Cause you seem a bit freaked out.”

He ignored her, focused on typing. The phone vibrated a third time, which meant he had received and sent a total of five texts in less than two minutes – wildly unlike him, with his limited texting.

Another vibrated. His eyes widened. “ _Shit_.”

Jester was on her feet now, too, watching him anxiously. “Fjord, what’s wrong?”

He was shoving his phone in his pocket and grabbing his shoes as he spoke: “I just need to step out for a bit. Everything’s––”

Someone buzzed the apartment.

“Do not answer that!” Fjord snapped, holding a hand out toward Beau as though to stop her from moving closer.

“Dude, what the fuck?”

“You’re scaring me, Fjord. What’s wrong?”

He looked back and forth between them, one hand held up, while a shoe dangled from the other. There was a muffled vibration from his phone in his pocket. Then someone buzzed the apartment again.

Expression tight, he ran his empty hand through his hair and let out a long, heavy sigh. “It’s… It’s nothing you need to worry about. Just an ex.”

“An ex?” Both of Beau’s eyebrows raised. “Who… what? Stalked you to this apartment?”

“And she somehow got my phone number after I changed it three times, yeah.”

Though the word “ex” had made Jester’s heart squeeze with a strange jealousy, she kept her voice strong and calm as she said, “You shouldn’t go down and talk to her by yourself, then. We’ll go with you.”

“No! No, you really, _really_ shouldn’t. She is Bad News, capitalized.”

“You think I can’t handle her?” To emphasize her point, Beau crossed her arms in a way that drew attention to the well-defined muscles there.

Rather than being comforted or encouraged by this, Fjord only looked more desperate and panicked. “I really don’t want you guys getting mixed up with her – at all. It’s bad enough that she knows your apartment.”

“But if she’s that dangerous, you shouldn’t go talk to her, either,” Jester said. “We should call the police.”

“That’s––” He sighed, dropped the shoe he’d been holding to rub both hands over his face. “ _Fuck_. Okay. Hang on.” He leaned back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling, seeming to struggle to find words. After a long, tense pause (during which his phone vibrated twice and the apartment was buzzed a third time), he said, “If you call the cops on her, she’s gonna see to it that I’m dragged down with her.”

“How? You didn’t do anything.”

He let out a breath through his nose. Then he pulled up the hem of his shirt, revealing part of his stomach and side. Jester had only seen him shirtless once, several months ago, so she was surprised to see a square of bandage over the same spot as before. He grabbed one corned and peeled it back, wincing as the tape pulled at his skin. It was obvious from the raw and irritated line around the area that he had been taping bandages to his skin like this often, and for a long time – but that wasn’t what drew Jester’s attention. Beneath the patch of gauze was a strange, shoddily done tattoo of a crooked yellow circle with an off-centre line in the middle, like a cat’s eye.

Beau was the first to break the silence. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“What?” Jester asked, glancing between them. “What does it mean?”

“It’s the symbol of the False Serpent, a rumoured cult-gang from Port Damali. I didn’t know it was actually _real_.”

“It’s very real,” Fjord murmured. “And Avantika’s a pretty big deal among their ranks.”

“You’re in a _gang_?” Jester squeaked. She frantically searched her every memory of him, searching for some sign of shadiness. Had he ever brought home strange packages or mysterious injuries? Had he disappeared for days at a time without explanation?

“Was – sort of.” The apartment buzzer sounded again and he bit out a string of curses. “Okay, abridged version. About five years ago I was homeless. I’d aged out of foster care a few years before and hit a rough spot. Was making do as best as I could, but it was tough. I met Avantika one night when I was sleeping on a park bench. She offered me her couch and I accepted, because I was desperate and stupid. I didn’t know she was in a gang at the time – I didn’t realize it for a while – but she showed me generosity and kindness that I really hadn’t known before. And…” he hesitated, blushing. “And she offered me a lot more.”

“You can just say she fucked you,” Beau deadpanned.

“Right. Uh… Anyway, by the time I found out what her tattoos meant and what kind of company she kept, I was already in pretty deep. We’d been together for two months and I had nowhere else to go. She kept hassling me to join up, to get initiated, but I refused. Promised to keep my mouth shut and not get her or anyone else caught, but… That wasn’t enough for her.

“One night, we were all hanging out at her place, drinking. She must have slipped me something because I only had two or three drinks, but next thing I knew I was struggling to stay conscious in someone’s basement. They were holding me down – I could feel this pain…” He gestured toward his tattoo. “Woke up with this.”

“But you didn’t agree to join,” Beau said. “They can’t arrest you for being drugged and tattooed against your will.”

“They can if I stayed with her – with the False Serpents – for three more months before I finally pulled my head out of my ass and skipped town.”

“But you did _leave_ ,” Jester said. “That counts for something, right?”

“And you didn’t… You didn’t, like, _do_ stuff for them, did you?”

He shrugged, not meeting either of their gazes. “I did stuff in the background. But I didn’t get involved in anything violent. And I didn’t sample any of the product.”

Despite being over six feet tall, Fjord looked small as he leaned against the wall of their apartment, hair a mess and eyes downcast. Though her mind was still struggling against the image of him in bed another woman, Jester could feel her heart swell and break for him all at once. Impulsively, she reached out and grabbed his hand. His head snapped up, gaze meeting hers – brow furrowed, green eyes questioning.

“I really, really think you should talk to the police, Fjord. I don’t think it will be as bad as you’re expecting if you come clean – especially since you know so much about them, yeah? You can tell the police all kinds of names and places and stuff that they probably have no idea about.”

She glanced to Beau for support, who offered a half-shrug. “It’s not the worst idea.”

Fjord laughed, but there was no humour in the sound. “I see where you’re coming from Jester and appreciate the support, but I could still go to jail for that – and if I go to jail as the guy who ratted out the False Serpents, any other Serpents in there with me are gonna make sure I leave in a fucking body bag.”

“So what are you gonna do?” Beau asked. “Go out there and fight her?”

“No. I – I gotta try to talk to her. Reason with her. Find some kinda bargain I can make with her to get her off my back permanently.”

“Fjord, that sounds _really_ dangerous,” Jester said, squeezing his hand.

“I don’t have a whole lot of other options.”

“Okay, well, if you’re doing this,” Beau said, “then I’m coming with you. I don’t have to go right outside with you right away, but I wanna stay by the door where I can watch. If she gives you trouble, I jump out and fight.” Then, to Jester, she added, “And you should watch from the window. Call 911 if anyone gets seriously hurt.”

“What? No! Guys, this is a really, really bad––”

“Let’s get it over with,” Fjord muttered. He pulled his hand free of hers and bent to pick up his shoe again.

Jester watched, helpless, as both her roommates headed out of the apartment and toward a literal gang leader. When the door clicked shut behind them, she snapped to her senses and rushed down the hall to Beau’s room, which looked down on the street in front of the building. About thirty seconds later, Fjord and a red-haired woman were stepping out onto the sidewalk.

As much as Jester already hated her, Jester couldn’t deny that Avantika was beautiful. Her big, curly red hair was vibrant and eye-catching, she held herself with a confident and commanding posture, and there was an obvious strength to her feminine figure. She imagined this woman coming to Fjord one cold night, offering him sanctuary, and she could understand why he would’ve accepted.

Didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

Especially not now, when this woman was offering Fjord the very opposite of sanctuary. Her crossed arms and arched brows told Jester that Avantika was dubious as she listened to Fjord, and Jester desperately wished she could hear what he was saying. But if she opened the window, one or both of them might hear it, and she wasn’t sure if that would be bad for Fjord.

Avantika laughed at something Fjord said, lip curling, and she raised her hand in a strange motion Jester didn’t understand. Was she trying to show Fjord something? Gesturing for him to move somewhere?

And then there was a blur of movement from around the corner of the building. A man was soon behind Fjord – a flash of metal – the dark spray of blood as he plunged a knife into Fjord’s back. He cried out loud enough for Jester to hear through the window, staggering forward; Avantika side-stepped him, still laughing as he fell to his knees.

Beau burst from the main doors and threw an elbow at the man’s head, and the cold terror that had seized Jester’s heart eased enough for her to remember the phone clutched in her hand. She fumbled with it, hands shaking as she called 911, horrified by the scene unfolding below – by Fjord’s blood spilling down his back and onto the sidewalk – but unable to look away.

“Hello, 911. What’s your emergency?”

Somehow, she managed to hold in her sobs and speak: “My name is Jester Lavorre and my friend’s just been stabbed.”


	8. Chapter 8

Growing up, Jester had often gone back and forth about wanting to be a doctor.

She wanted to help people, to make them happy, to heal them of what hurt them. But hospitals were often joyless places, cold and sterile and full of death, and she wasn’t sure if she could overpower that with her own exuberance. She wasn’t sure that exuberance could even survive in such a scary place.

But she had never _hated_ hospitals. Not until now.

“You’re sure you’ve never seen him involved in any kind of gang activity?” the police officer was asking, looking over what he had written in his little notepad. “No smuggling? Suspicious persons in his company?”

“No,” Beau said, sounding as dry and fed-up as ever. “He’s pretty boring, honestly.”

From where he lay stomach-down on the hospital bed, Fjord started to chuckle weakly but cut off with a groan. They were in a private room for the moment, though once the cop was done with his questioning, Fjord’s bed would be moved to a four-bed ward and remain there until he was released. The knife hadn’t damaged his spine or any vital organs, so they were hoping he would be free within a day.

“But you also said he lived with the man who stabbed him?” the officer continued.

“Yes, but he moved out a while ago because Sabian turned out to be a really shitty roommate,” Jester said. She had her hands folded in her lap, clutched together to hide how badly she was still shaking. She kept glancing at Fjord, afraid to let him out of her sight again, the swatch of bandages over his freshly stitched stab wound still making her feel sick.

The scene outside the apartment was all a blur to her. Beau had managed to disarm and knock out Sabian pretty quickly, but Avantika had proved a tougher fight. Jester had rushed out of the apartment while on the line with 911, hoping to – what? Help Beau? Save Fjord? She didn’t know. But watching from a window had made her feel helpless and trapped, so she had run down to the street below. By the time she got there, Beau had Avantika pinned and sirens were screaming ever closer. As soon as she got a proper look at the man who had stabbed Fjord, she knew it was Sabian.

They were still piecing together the details. Police hadn’t found any markings on Sabian to indicate he was a member of the False Serpents, but his phone held a long history of text conversations with Avantika – he had been stalking Fjord, learned where he lived now, and passed everything he knew on to Avantika. Then the two had planned their vengeful ambush.

“But Mr. Stone was also involved with this woman, Avantika.” The officer looked at each of them, not quite able to hide the skepticism in his expression. “And he’s tattooed with a gang symbol.”

“Yeah, we’ve all corroborated these details already,” Beau said. “He already offered to spill as much information about the gang as he knows, and the only reason he didn’t before is because he was scared of _getting stabbed to death_.” She made a flourishing gesture toward Fjord, her whole demeanor dripping sarcasm.

“Beau…” Fjord said in a warning tone.

The officer was unfazed. “I understand and appreciate all that, but I need to be thorough. Dealing with gang-related crimes can be tricky.” He glanced at Fjord. “I don’t wanna leave any loose ends.”

Jester leaned forward in her seat, eyes wide and imploring. “Fjord’s a really, really good person. I promise. He had been covering his tattoo for years because he didn’t want to be associated with that gang stuff anymore – you can see the rash from him taping gauze over it all the time.”

“Yeah, dude just worked hard and studied hard as long as we’ve known him.”

Glancing between the two of them, the officer sighed. “I’m going to take all of this into consideration – I can promise you that much. We’re also going to do a search of his stuff in the apartment, just to be sure there’s no hidden drugs or other contraband or things of that sort.”

Jester resisted the urge to send a panicked glance to Beau and silently prayed that Molly hadn’t left any of his, uh, “special treats” behind when he moved out. He _probably_ hadn’t. Most likely.

Fjord didn’t have to stay overnight in the hospital – just a few hours for observation. The doctor prescribed painkillers and antibiotic ointment to protect against infection, instructed Jester on how often to change the bandaging and tend to the wound, and gave Fjord a long list of restrictions on activities until the stitches were removed. They expected about two weeks for recovery.

They were all tense and quiet on the drive home. Fjord took the passenger seat while Beau drove, and Jester watched him struggle to hide his pain as the truck bumped along. She wished she could help him – could protect him from his wounds – but she couldn’t do anything more than the doctor and nurses already had.

An officer had visited the apartment (accompanied by Beau) before Fjord was released and – thankfully – found nothing amiss. It looked like Fjord was in the clear, though none of them knew when Avantika would be brought to court and he would have to testify against her. In a case as big and complicated as unveiling an elusive gang leader, it could take years. 

When they had returned to the apartment, Fjord borrowed Jester’s phone and disappeared into his bedroom to call work. He couldn’t do any heavy lifting while his stitches were in, which was the bulk of his job stocking shelves overnight at the grocery store, so he couldn’t work for two weeks.

It wasn’t long before he emerged to return Jester’s phone to her. She tried to study his face and get a read on how the conversation had gone; his expression was carefully blank, but there was no mistaking how pale he was, how hard he tried to avoid her eyes as he muttered, “Thanks.”

“Is everything okay?” she asked, voice low. Beau had already gone to bed – it wasn’t super late, but it had been a long day and she worked first thing in the morning. They were effectively alone in the quiet apartment.

He sighed. “… No.”

“Can you get in trouble with your job for being hurt?”

“Not technically.” He let out another sigh, then stepped over to sit next to her on the couch, careful to perch on the edge so his back didn’t press against anything. “But I have no work for the next two weeks, obviously, which is a huge loss for me. And I dunno what my hours are gonna look like when I’m ready to go back – especially since I was already gonna be asking to cut back when classes start again.”

“Are… Are you worried about losing hours?”

He laughed bitterly. “Of course I’m fucking worried.” Then he was looking at her, hesitation clear in his features. “Do you not worry about that stuff?”

She shrugged and ducked her head. Why was she blushing? She had never felt self-conscious about coming from money before – not around Veth or Caleb or Molly or any of her other, poorer friends. And she never had around Fjord before, either.

“I, um…” He rubbed at the back of his neck, no longer looking at her. He was blushing, too. “I’ll do my best to keep making rent, but I might be a bit late on my payments.”

“Fjord! No, no, no – don’t worry about that at all. I already told you before you moved in: Beau and I are fine to cover rent on our own.”

“I’m not going to live here and not pay. I can’t––”

“Fjord,” she cut in softly. He met her eyes, and she could see clear panic in his gaze. And she remembered earlier that day when they had all been standing in the living room, listening as Fjord explained his history with Avantika while she incessantly texted him, listened to him tell them of Avantika coming to him when he was desperate and providing him shelter for no cost – at first.

She shifted in her seat to face him properly, grabbing the hand he rested on his knee. Surprise and confusion were clear in his once guarded expression, so she gave his hand a gentle squeeze and smiled as she said, “Fjord, it’s okay. I’m not Avantika. Beau isn’t Avantika. We’re not going to twist this around on you and make you owe us something you don’t want to give. Okay?”

For a long moment, he stared at her, seeming to search her eyes for something unspoken. Eventually, slowly, he turned his hand within her grasp until they were palm-to-palm and he could curl his fingers between hers. He gave a slight nod, voice soft: “Okay.”

She felt trapped in his gaze. For a brief, wild instant, she thought of her romance novels – of scenes just like this where the misunderstood hero would confess his love for the charming and innocent heroine before leaning in to kiss her sweetly.

But Fjord turned away and pulled his hand free from hers as he suddenly rose to his feet. “I should get to bed – it’s been a hell of a day.” He laughed a little, and though it still wasn’t his normal laugh, the sound wasn’t as bitter and hollow as it had been earlier.

“Of course.” She smiled up at him. “Have a good night, Fjord. Come get me if you need anything.”

He smiled back softly. “Good night, Jester.”

The next two weeks were… strange.

Fjord wasn’t able to work and classes hadn’t started back up again yet, which meant he spent almost every hour of every day in the apartment. The only exception were his volunteer hours; the work he did at the library wasn’t physically strenuous, so he was allowed to continue with that as long as he took it extra easy. Beau agreed to make sure no one gave him a hard time. 

Fjord and Jester had never spent this much one-on-one time together before, and Jester couldn’t deny that she enjoyed it. And not even because of her crush, really. Fjord was a good friend – they got along well, he actually enjoyed and encouraged her rambling stories, and he had an easy-going presence that made talking for hours seem natural and simple. When she decided to bake cupcakes, he kept her company in the kitchen and did his best to help; when he played games on Beau’s PS4, she sat beside him on the couch and kept a running commentary of the game that had him laughing hard enough to complain about his stitches. And sometimes they just sat together, him reading and her drawing, enjoying each other’s presence even as they focused on other things.

It was only awkward when he needed fresh bandages. They changed them in the morning after he showered, and he always laid down on the couch for her – never on his bed, though he always went to his room afterward to finish getting dressed and ready for the day. Neither spoke during the process, and Jester was glad for that; feeling his voice rumble through his torso as she spread ointment over his wound would have scrambled her brain far more than his warm skin and lean muscles under her hands already did.

Those brief moments felt precious and intimate and the sight of his stitched together flesh filled her with a surge of protectiveness so strong it scared her.

But it also meant she saw him shirtless on a daily basis, and that meant she saw his tattoo, the poorly drawn yellow eye staring at her coldly from just above his hip. She wanted to erase it. Wished she could grab her paints and cover it up in smooth green to match his skin – but skin was different than canvas, and she had never actually learned to tattoo.

At least he wasn’t covering it up all the time anymore. There was a strange comfort in that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that this is set in Canada, so Fjord's not fjucked on medical bills.


	9. Chapter 9

Eventually, life went back to normal. There were no charges laid against Fjord for his involvement with the False Serpents, in large part because of the long list of names and locations he provided the police. He went back to work, though his hours were spotty for a while, and Jester felt the loneliness of an empty apartment much more profoundly than she ever had before.

And then classes started and they were all busy again, enough that missing him was faint but constant, like an unnamed worry that hovered at the back of her mind.

The weeks passed quickly and, before she knew it, it was already October. The promise of Thanksgiving and seeing her momma again buoyed her spirits, and the week before the holiday she talked to Beau about when they should head out for Nicodranas.

“Oh, uh, I don’t think I’m gonna be going this year,” Beau said, stirring her cereal absent-mindedly and not meeting Jester’s eyes. They were sitting on the stools that lined the island countertop in the middle of the kitchen. “Yasha’s actually gonna be in town that weekend, and she can’t spend it with Molly this year like she normally would, so…”

“You wanted to spend it together as a couple,” Jester finished for her. She tried to hide how her heart sank. Ever since Beau had moved in three years ago, the two of them had spent every holiday together at Jester’s childhood home because Beau never felt welcome visiting her own parents. As much as Jester looked forward to seeing her momma again, she knew the house would feel strangely empty if it was just the two of them there – like it had been in all the years before she moved away for college.

“I meant to tell you last week, but we’ve all been super busy lately.”

“Meant to tell who what last week?” Fjord had entered the kitchen, his hair still damp from his shower, the familiar scent of his body wash making Jester smile on reflex.

“Thanksgiving plans,” she said.

Around a mouthful of cereal, Beau added, “I’m gonna be at Yasha’s the whole weekend.”

“Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving, Fjord?” But even as she asked the question, Jester realized how stupid and insensitive she must have sounded – he had told her plainly that he had no family. So who would he ever spend it with?

“Uh, not exactly. Normally I would work every night except the Monday, but I’m not scheduled for it this year. Might pick up a shift or two if someone else wants to get it off.”

“Or,” Beau started, shooting a quick, knowing look in Jester’s direction, “you could keep Jester company. Usually I go to Nicodranas with her, but obviously that’s not happening this year. I’m sure her mom would like to meet you.”

“Ooh, yes! Momma’s always wanting to meet Veth and Caleb and them, and she was sad when Molly moved before she got to meet him.” She looked up at Fjord with a wide grin, heart fluttering excitedly in her chest.

“I… I guess that’s an idea.”

“Unless you don’t want to – that’s okay, too.”

Beau scoffed and said to Fjord, “You want to, trust me. The food’s amazing, and Marion is an awesome woman. Beats hanging out here by yourself.”

“M-maybe.” He scratched at his side self-consciously, not quite meeting Jester’s eyes. “Have you talked to your mom much about me?”

“Well, yeah. I tell her about all my friends.” She frowned. There was something hidden between the lines of his question – that much was clear from his fidgeting. And as she watched his fingers scratch at his side, she realized what he was actually scratching at: his tattoo.

Turning on her stool to face him fully, Jester touched his forearm to stop him. He stilled, eyes widening slightly as he met her gaze, a startled blush beginning to burn on his cheeks. Smiling softly at him, she said, “My momma is not going to judge you, Fjord. She knows I wouldn’t be friends with someone if they weren’t a good person.”

There was a long stretch of silence as he stared at her, uncertainty clear in his features but beginning to mix with something else.

“Well,” Beau declared louder than necessary, “I better get to work. See you guys later.” And then she carried her empty bowl to the sink and slipped out of the kitchen, leaving the two of them alone.

Fjord took a step back and pulled his arm away, instead running his fingers through his hair. “I, uh… I’ll keep it in mind, certainly. Thank you, Jester.” He smiled. “You do a lot for me.”

She only half-heard his words, her mind having spun into motion when she realized he was still self-conscious about his tattoo. Normally, a cover-up would have been well outside of his price range, and he probably didn’t know much of anything about professional tattoos anyway. But maybe…

“You definitely need to come with me, Fjord.”

His fading blush intensified. “Pardon?”

“To Nicodranas. For Thanksgiving. I don’t want you to spend the weekend alone, and my momma really wants to meet more of my friends, _and_ I know someone who can do a cover-up of your tattoo for you.”

“I really, really appreciate that, Jester, but I can’t afford something like that right now.”

“You don’t have to.” She folded her hands together in her lap and tilted her head, looking as sweet as possible as she smiled up at his bewildered expression. “It’ll be an early Christmas present. Plus, I can get a pretty awesome discount ‘cause I’m really good friends with the artist. He’s a tortle named Orly and he has an eyepatch and when I was a kid I used to think he was a pirate because he was, like, a sailor or a fisherman or something, but he retired from that and does tattooing full-time now.”

“And you know him? Like, personally?”

“Well, yeah. Before I decided to go to the arts college here, I thought about apprenticing as a tattoo artist – but fucking up on a canvas or in a sketchbook is waaaay different than fucking up on someone’s skin, so I decided not to.”

Fjord laughed, shaking his head. “You’re just full of surprises.”

“Mmhmm!” She beamed at him. “So? You’ll come with me?”

“It sounds like I’d be pretty foolish not to.”

Jester clapped her hands and danced in her seat, which earned another laugh from Fjord, who had moved away from her and finally started making his breakfast. She finished her own food and got ready for her morning classes, the scent of fresh coffee and promise of a fun holiday putting her in high spirits.

It wasn’t a long drive to Nicodranas – maybe two hours – which made it easy to visit every holiday without worrying about the expense and complication of planes. Still, Jester didn’t have her license, Fjord didn’t have a vehicle, and Beau wasn’t able to drive them because she was spending the weekend with Yasha, which all meant that Jester had to undergo the awkward experience of explaining that her momma was sending her driver to pick them up.

“Her driver?” Fjord said, disbelieving. “Your mom has a personal driver?”

“Well, yeah.” Jester shrugged, feigning indifference even though she was sure she was blushing purple. It was the morning of the day they were due to leave, and they were sitting in the living room waiting for a call from said driver, their bags packed and ready by the apartment door. “My momma’s super famous and rich and stuff.”

“Y-your mom is _famous_? Who is she?”

“You’ve probably heard of her – the Ruby of the Sea.”

Fjord choked on his own spit.

“Oh, have you watched her before?”

“I, uh – no, I can’t say I have.” He was blushing to the very tips of his ears now. “But I’ve heard a lot of, um, praise for her work. Uh… I’m not judging or anything – I’m sure she’s a lovely woman – but how has it not come up in previous conversation that your mom is a porn star?”

“I dunno. I guess I just don’t think about it that much.” Her phone vibrated in her lap. “Ooh! Our ride’s here! Let’s go!”

It didn’t take long to bring everything down to the car – Jester had two bags and Fjord had one, so they were able to carry everything in one trip. They were greeted by Bluud, the massive, surly minotaur who had been in Marion Lavorre’s employ since Jester was very young. She greeted him cheerfully and paused to give him a kiss on his fuzzy cheek before she climbed into the backseat with Fjord.

“What do you think you’ll get for your new tattoo?” she asked a few minutes after they had hit the road. They each sat by one of the windows, an empty seat between them, and the small distance seemed strangely wide – even though she and Beau always travelled the same way when they visited her mom.

“Uh, well…” he paused, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as though he was too shy to look directly at her while he explained. “I was thinking maybe something to do with jellyfish.”

She perked up. “Really? Why?”

“Had some unpleasant run ins with them when I was a kid growing up in Port Damali. They’re nasty little fuckers and I used to hate them, but… I dunno. They’re kind of fascinating.” He was grinning now and facing her properly. “Did you know one species of jellyfish is effectively immortal?”

Her eyes grew wide. “That’s so cool!”

“Yup. It’s a huge reason I’m interested in marine science – also because there’s just so much we don’t know about the ocean.”

“That’s really awesome, Fjord.” It wasn’t hard to picture him out at sea, diving deep underwater to explore hidden reefs and discover strange new species. “You’ll do great at that.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Time will tell. I’ve gotta graduate first.” His grin turned a bit cheeky. “Already had one crisis averted. Who knows what’ll happen this semester?”

“Don’t jinx it!”

“You believe in jinxing things?” he asked, eyebrow raised. His smile made it clear he was just teasing.

Jester drew herself up as tall as she could while seatbelted in, lifting her chin haughtily. “I’m not going to chance it.”

“Well, I guess that’s probably wise of you.”

Giggling, she settled back into her normal posture. “Do you think that’s what you’ll get tattooed? An immortal jellyfish?”

“Maybe. They’re kinda weird looking, though. I might get a simpler design – something more artistic, you know?”

“Oooh! I’m so excited!” She couldn’t help but wiggle in her seat. “It’s going to look amazing, Fjord – Orly will do a super awesome job.”

“I trust your judgement on that.” His smile softened. “Thank you. Again. _Again_ again – shit, you’ve done a hell of a lot for me.”

She blushed, trying to shrug off his praise. “Well, you know. I like to help my friends.”

“And I am extremely grateful for that. Don’t know where I’d be right now without you.”

They lapsed into silence, staring at each other across the backseat of the car, the world passing by unnoticed. Jester wasn’t sure how to respond – didn’t know how to say anything without sounding either too trite or too intimate – but she was saved from the growing awkwardness by Bluud calling back to them.

“Do either of you want me to stop at a drive-thru for an early lunch?”

“No, thanks,” they said in unison. They exchanged glances, cracking up, and just like that the strange air between them was gone.

Marion Lavorre’s house wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small, either. The more impressive part of her home, however, was the expansive property it rested on, the view from the street blocked by well-maintained trees while a long, gated driveway led up to it. They couldn’t see the house yet when Bluud stopped at the gate to enter a code in the pinpad, but Fjord was staring out his window with an awestruck expression.

“ _This_ is where you grew up?”

“Well, yeah.” Again, Jester found herself unusually flustered by talking about her family’s wealth. “I told you: My momma is super famous.”

It took almost a minute to reach the end of the driveway. When they finally pulled to a stop beside the house, Jester noticed Fjord rub his palms on the knees of his jeans before unfolding himself from the backseat, and it occurred to her that he was probably far more nervous than she was. She got out of the car and moved around it to stand beside him; Bluud was busy retrieving their bags from the trunk.

“Fjord,” she said softly. He started at the sound, turning to face her. She smiled. “Relax. My momma’s going to love you.”

He nodded, looking entirely unconvinced. Bluud had grabbed all three of their bags and was making his way up the walkway to the front door. They followed suit.

Inside was a small foyer. A staircase ran up one wall with a beautifully carved banister of dark wood, a chandelier of glittering crystal hung from the ceiling, and a hallway directly across from the front door led off to the rest of the house. It was from this hallway that the Ruby of the Sea emerged, red-skinned, curly-haired, and beaming at the sight of her daughter.

“Oh, my little Sapphire!” She rushed forward and enveloped Jester in a tight hug. “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too, Momma.” Jester squeezed her back, feeling a tension she didn’t know she had been carrying release from her shoulders. After several long seconds, she stepped back from her momma’s embrace and gestured to Fjord, who stood just behind her, looking out-of-place and uncertain. “This is my new roommate, Fjord.”

Marion was still smiling as she greeting him and welcomed him to her home, though Jester didn’t miss the way her momma’s eyes quickly swept over the half-orc. She glanced over at her daughter, eyebrow subtly quirked. “I must say, this is the first time my Jester has ever brought a _man_ home. I am happy for her.”

“Momma!” Her cheeks were already burning. “He’s a friend – I told you that.”

Marion lifted her hands in surrender. “Okay, I believe you.” But her tone and expression made it clear she didn’t.

Jester sensed an awkward conversation in her near future.

“Your daughter’s been a huge help to me,” Fjord said, brushing smoothly over the awkwardness. “She’s incredibly kind and generous. You should be very proud of her.”

With warm eyes and a soft smile, Marion put an arm around Jester and kissed her temple. “I always have been.”

Between Fjord’s praise and her momma’s affection, Jester felt like she was glowing. Smiling so wide her face hurt, she moved toward the stairs and beckoned for Fjord to follow. “Come on! Let’s get you settled in, okay?”


	10. Chapter 10

Though she felt weird leaving Fjord alone so soon after reaching her momma’s house, he insisted that she should take some time to see her momma one-on-one.

“You haven’t seen her for months and you’ve been talking non-stop about this trip all week,” he had said, trying to shoo her from the guest room he was staying in. “Go. Spend time with her. I’ll be fine on my own for an hour or so.”

“You should check out the garden behind the house,” she blurted. Then tried not wince. Fjord had never shown any interest in flowers before. “Um… It’s super pretty and stuff – momma has a really nice gardener and––”

His laughter cut her off. “ _Jester_. I’ll be fine. I promise.”

So, after grabbing her sketchbook, she left him in the guest room and headed downstairs, where she found Marion in the living room with a pot of tea and three cups waiting on the coffee table. Light flooded in through the gauzy curtains in the window behind her, making her look more ethereal than one would typically expect of her Infernal heritage, her curled horns forming a dark, backlit halo.

Jester bounded over, plopped onto the couch, and threw her arms around her mother in another tight hug. Laughing, Marion returned the embrace before pulling away and beginning to pour the tea. “Is Fjord not joining us?”

“No – he said I should have some one-on-one time with you first.”

“So he is a thoughtful young man.” Marion handed Jester one of the fine teacups with its faded but intricate floral patterning, then took one for herself and sipped it carefully. “I trust your friendship with him has been… mutually beneficial?” From the quirk of her lips and waggle of her eyebrows, there could be no doubt what sort of “benefits” she was hinting at.

“Momma, _no_! I already told you: Fjord is just a friend.”

She hummed and took another sip. “I’ve heard you talk at length about him almost every time you call. Am I to understand that excitement is merely friendly?”

“Yeah, totally,” Jester said with a nonchalant shrug, though she knew her blushing cheeks betrayed her.

“Well, in any case, I am eager to get to know him. He seems a lovely young man.” With a smile, she leaned over and squeezed her daughter’s knee. “Now, tell me – how are your classes? Do you have more of those beautiful drawings to show me?”

They spent the afternoon sipping tea, chatting about Jester’s semester, and admiring Jester’s sketchbook. Jester was especially selective about which pieces she showed her momma this time, since there were a lot of old sketches of Fjord from before he moved in and she actually got to know him. Though the quality of the art was fine, she found them embarrassing instead of thrilling to look at now. They seemed so stiff and hollow next to the real Fjord.

Instead, she showed off her sketches of birds flying over the harbour, tourists with their big cameras and bigger hats, Beau reading on the couch, and a pastel piece of the sun setting over the water at the park. Her momma was full of praise and adoration that left Jester warmed to her very core, especially because she knew how scared her momma had been about her leaving to pursue art school.

Eventually, they finished their tea and reached the last drawing in Jester’s sketchbook, and both women decided they should probably invite Fjord to join their company. They gave him a tour of the house, complete with rambling stories from Jester about various memories from each room, and then headed outside to show him around the yard.

Jester had hoped he would settle in as quickly as he had at the apartment (at least, as quickly as he had once he actually started talking to her and Beau). But if anything, he seemed to grow more ill at ease the more he saw of the house, keeping his hands in his pockets and appearing wary of touching anything. She tried to see the house through his eyes – tried to understand what parts of each room made him feel so out-of-place – but all she could see was her warm, beautiful home and her loving momma guiding them through it.

Fjord’s tattoo appointment wasn’t until early the next morning, so they spent the evening relaxing with her mother, letting her get to know Fjord and getting her caught up on more of Jester’s adventures and shenanigans over the last few months. Fjord’s initial nervousness eventually settled, though Jester noticed that he still seemed over-cautious about everything he touched, cradling his teacup in both hands as though it might shatter at the slightest provocation.

But he was kind to her momma, and she saw no judgement or lecherousness in his eyes when he talked to her, and that was the best sign she could have hoped for out of this visit. She wouldn’t have been able to remain friends with him if he had looked own her momma because of her job.

After supper and evening tea, Jester insisted on bringing Fjord to her room so she could show him all her childhood paintings. The pale pink walls were littered with poorly drawn unicorns and huge, arcing rainbows, and the ceiling was dotted with cartoonish stars forming constellations of her own invention. One shelf on the bookcase in the corner was stacked with finished sketchbooks, and the shelf above her clothes in the closet was piled with canvases. She was too short to reach them and would have had to grab a stool, but Fjord easily pulled a bunch of the canvases down for them to look through.

“Ooh! This is the last one I did before I left for my first year,” she said as she pulled the top canvas from the stack. On it, she had painted a bust of her momma. Her better-trained eye could see all the flaws in it – the unevenness of the eyes, the flatness of the face, the poorly mixed shading – but it was still a precious and proud thing to her.

“Your mother’s a lovely woman,” Fjord said, smiling as he carefully set the other paintings down on her bed. “I can see why you were so excited to come back here.”

Jester sighed wistfully as she hugged the portrait to her chest. “Yeah, momma’s amazing. I’m kinda sad Beau missed seeing her this time.”

“Understandably. Beau’s probably disappointed, too.”

Nah, she’s too distracted by Yasha.” She wrinkled her nose. “What do you think they’re doing right now?”

“I think it’s more appropriate to _not_ think about that.”

After getting Fjord to bring down more canvases and spread them out until they completely covered her queen-size bed, Jester started pointing to each piece, explaining what it was and when she had painted it. Fjord listened patiently, commenting on changes he saw and complimenting even her most amateur work, which caused warmth to tingle through her, all the way down to her toes.

Eventually, however, Fjord grew quiet and thoughtful. When there was a lull in conversation, he asked, “Is Beau the only other friend you’ve introduced to your mother?”

“Oh. Well… Yeah. Veth is always super busy with her own family and stuff, and Caleb really isn’t much for travelling, and Molly always spent holidays and stuff with Yasha.”

“And you never brought over friends from here, in Nicodranas?”

She started fussing with the canvases, trying to line all their edges up perfectly while she avoided Fjord’s gaze. “I never really had any friends growing up here. I mean, I guess I had Orly, but I was also kind of sort of his apprentice, so… It’s different, you know?”

“Seriously?” Even without seeing his face, she could hear his expression in his tone: eyebrows raised in plain disbelief. “I kinda got the impression you swooped in and made friends wherever you pleased.”

“I mean, once I left Nicodranas, yeah.”

“But not while you were here?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t know many people here.” Finally, she met his gaze, peeking at him from the corner of her eye. “When I was really, really little, momma had this super scary stalker situation. I don’t remember much about it ‘cause I was too young, but she stopped leaving the house and brought all of her work here, instead, and when I was old enough to go to school she hired an in-home teacher for me.”

“So you were homeschooled your whole life?”

“Mmhmm. My teacher was actually super awesome, too.” She faced him properly now, beaming. “Before he became a professor, Artagan taught me everything – math, history, writing. And art!” She made a sweeping gesture with her arm to encompass all the canvases laid out on her bed. “I was just getting ready to ‘graduate’ or whatever when he landed a job at the art college, and he said I should apply because I had a huge portfolio and was practically guaranteed to get in. So I did – and I did! Momma was super worried about me leaving the house, but knowing Professor Artagan would be there to keep an eye on me helped.”

“She must have been happy when you started making friends over there, then.”

Her smile softened. “Super happy. I tried to hide it when I called, but I think she knew I was super lonely at first. I didn’t have any roommates for the first three months. Meeting Beau and Molly was probably the best thing that could have happened for me.”

Fjord was watching her with a hard to read expression, his own smile gentle and thoughtful. “Well, I’m glad you found them then.”

There was a pause – not an awkward one, exactly, but the kind of silence that made Jester’s thoughts feel too loud. So she blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Sorry if momma’s comments made you uncomfortable. I’ve never had a boyfriend or anything like that before, and I think she just got a little too excited about me bringing a boy home.”

Instantly, she wished she could suck every syllable back into her mouth. Fjord did _not_ need to know that she had never dated before!

Instead of laughing at her, however, Fjord just raised his eyebrows. “How long have you been in college?”

“This is my third year.”

“And you’ve never dated?”

Her cheeks were burning intensely enough to make her eyes water, and she prayed to every god that might exist that he didn’t think she was starting to cry. “Fjord, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kind of super weird.”

“Not in a bad way, though.” He chuckled, not unkindly, and his next words we soft enough that she almost _did_ cry: “Look, I’m not trying to make you feel bad. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about – I was just surprised that someone so… exuberant and charming wouldn’t have a mini entourage of suitors following her around.”

Jester ducked her head to avoid his gaze again. “I mean, it’s a _little_ embarrassing. I’m twenty and I’ve never even kissed a boy.” _Oh god, why did she keep talking_?

There was a long, _long_ stretch of silence during which Jester frantically sought a semi-dignified escape route from this conversation. Eventually, however, Fjord said, “If it’s any consolation, I’ve never dated anyone except Avantika.” He let out a breath of laughter. “At least your history shows you aren’t a shitty judge of character.”

“What?” She looked up at him. A dark blush had spread across his cheeks, but he studied her carefully, not trying to hide. Her mind reeled as she tried to make sense of his words. Fjord was, like, five or six years older than her and extremely handsome – it seemed entirely inconceivable that he hadn’t dated and slept with at least as many girls as Beau.

But then, he would have been about her age when he met Avantika. And then he had dealt with that whole mess, and then with getting _out_ of that mess. Maybe he had been scared to date anybody after all that.

Jester moved a couple paintings aside and sat on the edge of the bed, patting the spot next to her. Fjord took the hint and sat beside her, wordless and seeming to wait on her to speak. There were questions in her mind – a _lot_ of questions – but one stood out amongst them. It sounded trivial even to her. It sounded _invasive_. But she wanted to understand him and his past better, and this was the best path forward she could see.

Fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, Jester gathered all her courage before she met his gaze and blurted, “Were you in love with Avantika?”

He looked taken aback by the question. And then his expression shifted through several emotions before settling into what she could only describe as weariness, his mouth frozen around a half-formed word. Eventually, slowly, he said, “No… No, I don’t think I did. At the time… At the time I didn’t know what I was feeling. I didn’t understand any of it. But looking back…” He hesitated, eyes appearing to search her face as he sought the right words. “I had a lot of fear. And desperation. And need. But I know now love shouldn’t feel like that.”

Jester pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them and resting her cheek on top. “Do you know what love _should_ feel like?”

His gaze held hers steadily, somehow both soft and intent, and she couldn’t tell if he was looking at her or _through_ her. His voice was low and warm as he said, “Yeah. I think I’m starting to figure it out.”

“That’s good.” She smiled despite the strange, bright pain spiking through her heart. Who was he falling in love with? He had never mentioned any other female friends aside from her and Beau, and it was abundantly clear that he only saw them as friends. But, then again, he was bound to have female classmates and coworkers, even if he didn’t mention them to her, and he would spend a lot of time with them – more time than he spent with her. “I hope she’s good to you – and if she isn’t, you let me and Beau know, because we will totally beat up anyone who hurts our friend.”

He laughed, maybe a bit louder than the joke warranted, and shook his head as though snapping himself out of a daze. “Right. Of course. You’ve already protected me from an angry ex-girlfriend gang leader.”

Jester giggled. “That makes it sound like she was the leader of a gang of ex-girlfriends.”

“Now _that_ is a truly terrifying thought.”


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning, Jester and Fjord left the house after breakfast, having Bluud drive them downtown to Orly’s tattoo shop, No Mistakes. Before they had gone to bed the previous night, Jester had looked up pictures of jellyfish for Fjord and saved them to her phone to use as a reference for Orly. They looked over them again as Bluud drove, narrowing down the selection a bit more.

“Are you excited?” Jester asked as Fjord looked through the selection of photos yet again. They had narrowed it down to three and had both agreed that having a few options would be good so Orly could pick the one that would translate most easily into a tattoo design, but Fjord was still swiping back and forth over them.

“I guess? I’m not really sure. I’ll be glad not to carry… _this_ ”––he gestured to where the False Serpent tattoo was hidden under his shirt––“anymore, but I’m a bit nervous about what I’ll have afterward.” He grimaced. “I don’t really remember getting that tattoo ‘cause I was too fucked up from whatever Avantika slipped me, so this kind of feels like my first time.”

“Well, you don’t have to be nervous because Orly is really awesome and really, really talented, plus I’ll be right beside you the whole time.”

His expression softened into a true smile. “Thanks.”

“And you can squeeze my hand if it starts to hurt.”

“I might just take you up on that.”

The drive to No Mistakes wasn’t especially long, and they were soon pulling up to the curb in front of the small shop, which was tucked in between a fish and chips spot and a tourist-y boutique. Bluud told Jester to call when they were ready to be picked up again, then drove off, leaving them standing on the sidewalk in front of the shop. Fjord stared up at the sign, looking greener than usual.

“You know, I met Orly just before he opened up his own tattoo place,” Jester said, clasping her hands behind her back and smiling up at Fjord. “He was doing really, really well working with this other shop uptown, but he wanted his own place, so he got a lease here and when he was getting it all set up he was trying to think of a name, and I was thinking about maybe apprenticing with him when he got his new shop so I wanted to help name it, but he didn’t like any of my suggestions.”

He seemed to gradually relax as he listened to her babble. Cocking his head to his side, he raised his eyebrows and asked, “Do I even wanna know what those suggestions were?”

“They weren’t bad or anything! Sheesh – you have _no_ faith in me, Fjord.”

He snorted. “I think you’ll find I have a ton of faith in you.”

“Well, whatever. I really, really wanted him to name it Orly Skiffback’s Sick Tats, but he said that sounded silly, so he called it No Mistakes instead because it’s supposed to be, like, encouraging to customers or something.”

“Orly Skiffback’s Sick Tats?” Fjord repeated, laughing.

“Mmhmm!”

“Well, I think that name has a lot of charm to it and he missed out on a great opportunity.” He paused, looking from her to the store front, then sighed, his posture sagging a little. “Guess we better do this.”

She grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before leading him through the front door.

Orly was his usual friendly self, smiling when he saw Jester enter and laughing off her attempts to get him to give a bagpipe demonstration to Fjord (“Nnn-now, see here, _ch_ _ère_ , there are folks t-trying to work.”). He was to-the-point about getting Fjord to remove his shirt and show what he wanted covered up, and Jester only felt a _tiny_ bit flustered and distracted by Fjord’s semi-nakedness; seeing the thin white scar on his back where he had been stabbed certainly helped sober her.

After examining the yellow eye tattoo, Orly clucked his tongue. “That is just… sad work, right there. I could do better with mmm-my left hand.”

If he knew anything about the symbol’s more nefarious affiliations, he didn’t comment on it.

The cover-up wasn’t huge and the design wasn’t especially complicated – simplified instead of aiming for realism – so Orly was able to do the job in a few hours. He looked over the sample photos Fjord and Jester had found and did a couple test sketches, tweaking them and discussing colour combinations with Fjord before coming to a final design that he transferred to the skin and began diligently working on.

At first, Fjord greeted the process with obvious apprehension that bordered on fear. But Jester took his hand between both of hers, forced him to look at her instead of Orly and his tattoo gun, and chattered away about everything and nothing – art projects she had to finish for next week, a bakery they should visit while they were in town, idle thoughts about making plans to hang out with Caleb again sometime when they got back from Nicodranas. His tension slowly eased until he could carry on a conversation like this was any normal day, and Orly had to occasionally warn Fjord not to laugh while he was inking.

“Now that is some mmm-mighty fine work, if I d-do say so myself,” Orly said as he stepped back, grabbing a hand mirror so Fjord could see the tattoo properly. Jester moved to the other side of the chair to get a better look.

The skin was still raw and slightly bloody, but she could tell the design would be beautiful when it healed. A cluster of three jellyfish swirled on Fjord’s hip, one bright orange, another deep purple, and the third a striking blue. One of the tentacles of the blue jellyfish overlapped with the center of the orange one, effectively masking what had once been a dark pupil in a yellow eye.

“This is amazing.” Fjord sounded slightly breathless as he stared, awestruck, at his new tattoo. He let out a breath of laughter, fingers hovering over the newly marked skin as though tempted and afraid to touch.

“I www-wouldn’t go poking it right away,” Orly said. “We’ll wrap it up to pr-protect it. I got an informmm-mation sheet for you on how to care for it properly.”

“Yes. Right. Thank you.” He grinned up at Orly. Then, to Jester, eyes wide and earnest, he repeated, “ _Thank you_.”

Warmth flooded her cheeks and fluttered through her stomach. “No problem, Fjord. Now, I think we’ve both earned a treat. We should go get ice cream when we’re done here!”

He laughed. “Sounds like a perfectly balanced lunch.”

The weekend passed by faster than Jester would like. When they got back to the house late Saturday afternoon, Jester insisted that Fjord show off his new tattoo to her momma, giggling at how flustered he was in the face of all their compliments. The evening led into board games, which mostly consisted of Jester and Marion destroying Fjord at Cards Against Humanity with the combined power of their dirty jokes.

Sunday was more subdued: Jester showed Fjord her few old haunts from the rare occasions she would leave the house, and then they spent the afternoon and evening hanging out with her momma, watching TV and chatting. Fjord’s initial apprehension had completely faded by this point, and it warmed her to see him able to fall into such friendly, easy-going conversation with her momma.

(If her momma snuck subtle winks in her direction, she chose to ignore it.)

They had an early supper Monday evening, a Thanksgiving feast prepared by their live-in cook. The table was covered in plates of turkey and potato and stuffing and carrots and cranberry sauce and gravy – for a moment, Fjord had looked overwhelmed as they all sat down and began serving themselves (with Bluud and the cook joining them, of course). But the moment had passed and he tucked in gratefully, with Jester making sure to tease him when he dribbled gravy on his shirt.

And then, just a few hours later, they were getting ready to load back into the car with Bluud and drive away. Jester and her momma held each other in a long, tight hug, a sudden wave of sadness stinging the back of Jester’s eyes.

“Oh, I’ll miss you, my little sapphire,” Marion said, voice choked.

Jester squeezed tighter. “It’ll be okay, Momma. Christmas isn’t that far away. And I’ll still call lots.”

Marion sighed as she stepped away. “Two months seems rather longer than I would like. But it helps to know you’re at least in good company.” Her gaze shifted past Jester’s shoulder, eyebrows raising. “I trust you will make sure she is taken care of?”

Jester didn’t need to look behind her to know her momma was talking to Fjord; hearing his nervous chuckle only confirmed that. “I’ll do my best, but, uh, she’s quite capable on her own. I think you’ll find she’s helped me far more than I’ve been able to help her.”

“I am well aware of my daughter’s capabilities, but it would be a comfort to know someone is watching out for her.”

“I – I will.”

“Good.” Then Marion’s attention shifted back to Jester as she patted her on the cheek and kissed her on the forehead. “Text me when you get home safely, okay?”

“I will, Momma. Promise.”

They hugged one last time, then Jester and Fjord got into the backseat of the car and they were driving off, leaving Marion behind them. Jester stared out the window, waving and fighting back tears, until her momma was completely out of sight, then sagged back in her seat. She was always sad when she had to leave her momma, but it was hitting her even harder this time, like she was eighteen again and heading off to a big city all by herself.

The click of a seatbelt unbuckling startled her. Glancing over, she saw Fjord sliding from his own window seat to the spot right beside her, buckling in again before studying her with kind eyes. “You okay?”

Though her eyes burned and her throat was tight, she forced herself to smile. “I’m fine. Totally.”

“No, you’re not.” He shifted to drape his arm across the back of her seat, not quite touching her, but the gesture was enough to crumble her resolve and make her burst into tears. Leaning into him, she buried her face against his shoulder while he awkwardly wrapped his arm around her, their attempt at a comforting hug constrained by their seatbelts.

“I miss my momma already,” she sobbed.

Fjord rubbed slow circles on her back. “I know. But you’ll see her again soon enough – and you can call her and have a nice long chat when we get home. Okay?”

She sniffled loudly as she nodded, clinging to him a little tighter. He held her for as long as she needed.


	12. Chapter 12

Though things had felt different with Fjord while they were in Nicodranas, they fell back into normalcy soon after they returned to their apartment. Beau was already home when they got in and immediately demanded to see Fjord’s new tattoo, which she simultaneously teased him mercilessly for and complimented earnestly. The pair of them slipped into their usual banter, and the trio’s dynamic slid so seamlessly into place it was like nothing had changed between Jester and Fjord.

But she was pretty sure something _had_ been different in Nicodranas. Or it had seemed like it. Unless she had imagined it all.

Work and school consumed their schedules again, their time together as friends reduced to passing each other in the kitchen and occasional nights off. Mid-terms hit hard, which meant huge tests for Fjord, major projects for Jester, and an influx of library patrons cramming and holding books well past their due date for Beau. By the time the dust settled and their respective workloads had eased off, Halloween had come and gone and the first snow of winter had fallen.

It was almost noon on the first Saturday of November when Jester finally rolled out of bed, wondering how she would pass the time while alone in the apartment. Probably, she wouldn’t bother staying in the apartment. It had been a while since she had visited her favourite café and bought out all their specialty cupcakes – maybe she would pay them a visit. At the very least, she would go out somewhere so she wouldn’t have to feel the emptiness of the apartment.

So when she headed into the kitchen, she was very surprised to see Fjord seated at the island countertop with a hot cup of coffee and a half-eaten bagel. He smiled when he saw her. “Morning.”

“What are you doing here?”

The smile quirked down into a frown. “Um… I live here?”

“No, I mean – don’t you have volunteer work today?”

“Oh. That.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Uh, Beau told me to fuck off and go home last weekend because I was… maybe a little too stressed about my last midterm. And, uh… I kind of realized that I don’t need to do volunteer work anymore, since I’ve already locked in my scholarship for the year.”

This was easily the best news Jester had heard all month. It took a considerable amount of self-restraint not to rush over and hug him. “Fjord! That’s awesome! Now we can hang out on weekends!”

“Yup. I mean, I’ll probably still work Friday and Saturday nights, but…”

Giggling, Jester pressed her hands to her too-warm cheeks and bounced on her feet. “This is so wonderful! Oh my god, there are _so_ many cool places I want to take you to––”

Fjord smiled and nodded as she babbled excitedly. She was so elated that she barely noticed when he got up from his seat and pulled a box of frozen waffles from the freezer, popped two in the toaster, and then grabbed the syrup and a little bottle of sprinkles. It was only when the toasted waffles were plated and set in front of her on the counter that she realized what he was doing.

“Oh! Thank you, Fjord!” She started pouring syrup all over her food as she resumed her rambling, and he continued to smile and listen, only occasionally interjecting with ideas and suggestions of his own.

“I like the sound of the cafés you mentioned,” Fjord said after they had both finished their breakfasts and begun tidying up the kitchen. “Er, not the one with cats, though – I’m allergic.”

This was probably the _worst_ news Jester had heard all month. “You’re _allergic_? Fjord, that’s so sad! Kitties are so soft and cute and playful!”

“I mean, they also have knives for hands, so I don’t consider it a huge loss.”

“Fjord!”

He laughed. “Seriously, though – I’d like to visit one of those cafés with you. I think it would make for a fun afternoon. A nice little change of pace.”

“Of course!” She was grinning so wide her face was starting to hurt, and it looked like the day was only going to get better. “I just need to shower and stuff and then I’ll be good to go.”

He waved her off. “Take all the time you need.”

If Jester skipped a little on the way to the shower, Fjord was kind enough not to tease her for it.

Originally, the plan had been to go to The Traveller’s Bounty, a cute, artsy little café that sold bear claws almost as delicious as the ones made back home in Nicodranas. But on the way there, Jester noticed a new business had opened up – a teashop run out of a once-neglected chapel. The abandoned property had been falling into decay since the congregation had dwindled to nothing, and Jester had never paid it much mind before, but now the vibrant flowers growing along the windows inside demanded her attention. A hand-painted sign declared it The Blooming Grove Teashop.

“You wanna go to church?” Fjord said, sounding dubious even as he followed her up the short walkway toward the impressive oak double doors.

“I mean, it’s not technically a church anymore, I don’t think. And if it’s weird, we can just leave.”

“Fair enough.”

Inside, the large, stained glass windows allowed colourful sunlight to pour into the chapel, whose pews had been repurposed and rearranged around several mismatched wooden tables. There were tons of flowers growing in here – in small pots on the tables, massive planters along the walls, baskets hanging from the arched ceiling – and enough candles that even Jester thought it was probably impractical and definitely a fire hazard. It was also kind of unnecessary, since there was obviously electricity, judging by the fully-functional mini-kitchen at the very back of the chapel.

The teashop was mostly empty, save for two people bent over laptops at one table in a shadowy corner, and a tall, pink-haired firbolg tending to the back counter. He looked up when a bell above the doors signaled Fjord and Jester’s entrance.

“Oh, hi,” he said, voice sleepy and smile pleasant. “Welcome to The Blooming Grove. My name’s Caduceus Clay. Is there anything I can help you with today?”

“Do you sell bear claws?” Jester’s voice echoed off the high ceilings and stone walls, drawing the attention of the one other pair of patrons in the shop.

Caduceus frowned. “No. That sounds quite cruel, honestly.”

“It’s a baked good,” Fjord said. Then, to Jester, he added, “Maybe we should go up to the counter instead of yelling across the chapel?”

“Aw, but the echo is kind of fun.”

He laughed even as he nudged her forward with a hand on the small of her back. Jester hoped her blush wasn’t obvious in the dim, colourful light.

As they crossed the space, a pair of staring eyes caught Jester’s attention. There, in one of the back corners, sat Caleb – and at his side was a drow boy she had never seen before. Both of them looked rather deer-in-the-headlights at the sight of her and Fjord.

“Caleb!” She waved and immediately rushed over. “Oh my god, what are you doing here? Who’s your friend? I, like, _never_ see you outside of the apartment.”

“Uh…”

Fjord soon caught up with her. “Jester, easy. You’re gonna give the poor guy a heart attack.”

From behind the counter a few feet away, Caduceus said, “Oh, that’s Caleb and Essek. They’re my best customers.”

“I’m quite sure we are his only customers,” Caleb said in a low voice. His lips twitched up in what might have been a sardonic smile, but it was hard to tell given the panic dominating the rest of his expression. “Er, we have been coming here for a week or so. It is a new shop and we like it because it is… quiet.”

Jester’s mind was spinning. Veth hadn’t mentioned anything about Caleb making a new friend the last time they talked, and she definitely _would have_ because that was huge news and really, really good progress for him. Which meant that Caleb had been secretly meeting with this guy for at least a week, and they had been going to this cute teashop alone together a bunch, and––

“We’ll get out of your hair, then,” Fjord was saying, gently tugging Jester’s arm so she followed him over to the counter to order drinks.

She pressed both hands against her cheeks, beaming up at him. “ _Oh my god!”_ she whispered. “Should I tell Veth?”

“Uh, let’s maybe err on the side of respecting their privacy for this one, okay?”

“Right, right, of course. Totally.” But Jester was buzzing with the urge to gossip. Maybe she would just tell Beau. Beau could definitely keep a secret. Or her momma – she wouldn’t tell _anyone_.

After they both ordered the drinks (Fjord got a simple and minty blend; Jester got one that was super fruity and sweet), they settled down across from each other at one of the tables near the middle of the chapel, a respectable distance away from Caleb and Essek. Jester had thought she would be unable to focus on anything except sneaking peeks at the two boys, building up the details of the gossip she would share with her momma, but the flickering candlelight played beautifully and distractingly across Fjord’s features as his gaze wandered over the chapel.

What was it about candlelight that made everything seem so instantly intimate? The vibrant flowers overflowing from the sizeable pot in the middle of their table didn’t help matters, nor did the way Fjord’s expression easily shifted into a smile when he met her eyes.

“You should take some pictures.”

“What?” _Shit_! He had totally caught her staring!

But he was gesturing to their surroundings, saying, “I’ve never seen a place quite like this before. I imagine you could make some amazing art inspired by it.”

“Oh. Yeah, totally – I’m a really good painter, so I could probably make this place look even _cooler_ if I painted it.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Well, then, I guess you’d better start collecting references.”

And so, while she waited until her tea had cooled enough to drink, she pulled out her phone and snapped a bunch of photos of the strange and gorgeous teashop. Some were wide shots, capturing the way the vines of a hanging plant crawled over the beams of the arched ceiling, or that centered on the brilliance of a stained glass window framed by tall but comparatively dim candles. And she took macros, showcasing the flickering flame of their table’s candle, Fjord’s teacup fuzzy but identifiable in the background. She thought about sneaking a couple photos of Caleb and Essek, which she wouldn’t have even debated doing a few months ago, but she found herself uncomfortable with the idea of preserving their private moment for herself.

“Do you want to walk around a bit and get some more photos once we finish our drinks?” Fjord asked after several minutes of this. He had drained half his cup; Jester had been too distracted to even touch hers.

“Sure!” Feeling bold, she turned her phone camera on Fjord and snapped a picture as he was sipping his tea.

He set the cup down, arching an eyebrow at her while his lips twitched with a barely contained smile. Then he shifted in his seat to strike a Thinking Man-esque pose. “I’m ready for my closeup.”

For several giggling minutes, Jester took picture after picture of Fjord posing or making ridiculous faces for her, even managing to catch him in the middle of genuine laughter a few times – the creases at the corner of his eyes emphasized by the dim light and strong shadows, his gaze directly focused on her, mouth wide with unabashed joy.

It occurred to her that these were the first photos she had taken that he knew about, and she already knew she liked them more than all the old, secret photos combined (even the shirtless one).

They were so distracted that both of their drinks went cold before they could finish them.


	13. Chapter 13

The next couple weekends were spent in similar fashion, with Fjord and Jester hanging out until he had to get ready for work. They usually went out somewhere on Saturdays, but they had agreed not to go to the Blooming Grove too often lest they scare off Caleb and Essek (though Jester was dying to know more about the strange new drow boy and his relationship to Caleb). She liked how low-pressure and natural hanging out with him felt now – that they could just talk and laugh and enjoy each other’s company – and she was grateful that she didn’t have to spend so much time alone on weekends anymore.

“What the hell are you guys doing?”

It was the third Sunday since Fjord had quit volunteer work and Beau had just come home from work to find Jester and Fjord standing on opposite sides of the kitchen, each holding a bowl of popcorn and trying to toss pieces into each other’s mouths. There was popcorn littering the floor and counters, and a lone piece had gotten caught on one of Jester’s horns. Jester and Fjord looked at Beau, then at each other, and promptly burst out laughing.

Without waiting for an explanation, Beau rolled her eyes and left the room, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll get the broom.”

Still snickering, Fjord glanced around at the debris surrounding them. “Yeeeah… We’ve probably wasted enough food today.”

“One more shot! Come on, I’ve totally got it this time!”

“Alright, alright.”

Fjord tossed the piece of popcorn toward Jester, who darted forward, mouth open, in an attempt to catch it. It bounced off her nose and ricocheted into the sink.

“Damnit!”

“It was a good effort,” Fjord said as he set his nearly-empty bowl on the counter. “You’ll get it next time.”

“Maybe popcorn is too light. We should try M&Ms! Ooh – actually, we could go to the store right now and––”

“I can pick some up when I’m at work tonight and we can try next weekend.”

Jester scrunched up her nose. “You work tonight? But you never work Sundays – it makes you too sleepy for class.”

By this point, Beau had returned with the broom and dustpan and began sweeping up all the popcorn. Fjord jumped to help, scooping up all the pieces off the counters and tossing them in the garbage. Then he and Beau were talking about some sort of MMA fight that was being streamed later that month, and before she knew it Fjord was disappearing into his room to get changed for work.

He never did explain why he was working on a Sunday.

“Jester, do you have any plans this weekend?” Fjord asked out of the blue Wednesday evening.

He, Jester, and Beau were scattered around the living room – Beau sprawled out across the couch, him sitting by the coffee table, and Jester laying on her stomach under the TV. Each of them had been quietly working on their own personal projects, from art to homework to reading.

Jester sat up, pushing her sketchbook aside for the moment. “Um… Not really? Why?”

“No reason.” He ducked his head and focused back on his textbook; she didn’t miss the odd blush that had started colouring his cheeks. “You just always seem to have something up your sleeve for Saturdays.”

“Oh. _Should_ I have something planned? I can totally come up with something – we could go dog walking or leave dick drawings in library books––”

“Excuse me?” Beau said, scowling from over the top of her book.

“––or bake a cake or––”

“No, no, that’s fine,” Fjord cut in. “I think a relaxed weekend in the apartment should be just fine.”

“Oh. Sure. We can just stay in and hang out, then.” She grinned mischievously. “Althoooough, that _doesn’t_ technically mean we _can’t_ bake a cake, too.”

“Well, I guess I can’t say no to cake.”

“You assholes better save some for me,” Beau said. “If I come home from work and smell cake and there’s none left for me to eat, I’m gonna be _pissed_.”

They were all pretty distracted after that – chatting back and forth about cake and leftovers and security measures to ensure Jester didn’t immediately devour all sweets in her presence – and it was a while before they settled back into their quiet, individual activities. Jester noted that Fjord seemed especially excited about their weekend plans (casual as they were) and made a mental note to buy as many different kinds of cake mix as she could find, that way he could pick his favourite.

“Morning, Jessie.”

A thrill of pleasure ran through her at the new nickname. It was Saturday and Fjord had just entered the kitchen as Jester was finishing up breakfast, his hair wet from his shower and an eager grin at his lips. It was practically noon, since he had worked the night before and slept late to make up for it, but Jester wasn’t one to nitpick semantics.

She beamed at him. “Hey, Fjord! You just missed Beau – she left for work, like, five minutes ago. Probably a good thing, though; she seemed cranky.”

“She’s always cranky,” he said good-naturedly as he grabbed a banana from the corner of the island and began peeling it.

“Hopefully she’s in a better mood once we give her cake.”

“Cake?”

Jester frowned and tilted her head curiously. “Yeah. Remember? We decided to bake a cake this weekend.”

There were several long seconds during which Fjord stared at her with an almost panicked expression, the spinning gears of his mind practically visible in his eyes. Then he cleared his throat. “Right. Yes. Of course. Uh, how long does it take to bake a cake?”

“Not super long. We wouldn’t be doing it from scratch or anything, so we basically just dump the mix in a bowl and throw in some eggs and water.”

“Less than half an hour probably?” When she nodded, Fjord visibly relaxed. “Cool, great. We could do that later this afternoon.” He paused, still not breaking eye contact, and then blurted, “Wanna go for a walk?”

It occurred to her that Fjord was being… weird. But she couldn’t imagine _why_. It wasn’t like when he had gotten awkward at her momma’s house because he felt out-of-place and self-conscious; it wasn’t like when he had sheepishly showed up at the apartment for the first time, covered in bruises and asking to move in; it wasn’t even like when she would tell dirty jokes and make sexual innuendo just to see him get flustered and blush.

He was up to something, that was for sure. But it was probably something cool or interesting or thoughtful, so she wasn’t worried.

“Sure! Just let me grab my coat.”

Though he had phrased it as an invitation for a casual walk, it was obvious that Fjord had a clear destination in mind. Twice Jester had to ask him to slow down, his long legs carrying him far faster than her comparatively short ones could. It was strange to see him so focused and secretive and, try as she might, Jester couldn’t help her imagination getting out of control.

Maybe he was taking her sailing or something. But, no, that didn’t make sense – it was winter. Everyone had pulled their boats from the harbour by this point.

Maybe he wanted to go to the movies with her. But why wouldn’t he just _tell_ her that? It seemed very un-Fjord-like for him to pick a movie for them to watch together without getting her input first. Plus, he had said before that movie theatres were way more expensive than they were worth.

Maybe he had planned some sort of elaborate surprise party for her. But for what? And with who? She knew for a fact that Beau and Veth were working, and Molly and Yasha were out of town.

Fifteen minutes into their trip, however, his destination became clear.

“Oh, hey,” he said, tone way too casual to be genuine, “have you ever checked this place out before?” He pointed to the squat brick building in front of them, which contained a sizeable aquarium and was a popular stop for locals and tourists alike.

“I haven’t, actually.”

“Well, then, today seems like a great day to try it out.” He extended his elbow to her like a gentleman offering his lady guidance and, giggling, she hooked her arm through his and let him lead her into the aquarium.

Inside, he didn’t give her a chance to pay her own admittance, which surprised her – they usually paid for themselves when they went out – but she decided not to comment on it. She had, after all, bought him a super nice tattoo _and_ she and Beau had given him a much cheaper cut of the rent. This was probably his own little way of repaying that kindness.

The nervous energy he had carried with him since breakfast slowly dissipated as they walked through the exhibit rooms, admiring the various tanks and the sea life they contained. More often than not, he could rattle off more facts about the fish they saw than the little placards explained, and Jester was all too happy to listen to his warm, confident voice talking about deep-sea creatures. It was fascinating, and his passion was infectious.

And the fish were beautiful – a myriad of strange colours and shapes and motions passing them, while rippling blue light made the rooms they observed from seem ethereal and otherworldly. She giggled at the pancake-like manta rays, cooed over rainbows of tropical fish, and wrinkled her nose at the grumpy-looking red Irish lords.

Jester was glad she had her phone to take photos with, but found herself wishing she had a big, proper camera – the kind tourists used to take pictures of boats and ice cream cones while they wandered the harbour in the summer. She wanted to paint everything here, though she worried her skills would never do it justice.

“I think you’ll like this next room,” Fjord said, leaning close and pitching his voice low so only she could hear. There were a few others around – mostly kids running wild with no parents in sight – but his closeness and his tone made the moment feel exceptionally private.

They were passing through a wide tunnel, over and alongside which schools of fish darted and swarmed. A shark drifted by lazily overhead; Jester stopped dead in her tracks and snapped more photos than she could count, mesmerized by her own proximity to such a massive predator.

When she finished and turned to catch up to Fjord, she found him standing just a few feet away, watching her with a soft smile. As she met his gaze, he raised his eyebrows and seemed to compose himself. “All good?”

“Yup!”

As soon as they passed into the next room, it was clear why Fjord thought she would particularly like it. All throughout the exceptionally dark blue water, vibrant red jellyfish bobbed along, as alien as they were beautiful. For a moment, she just stared, admiring, too swept up in the strange beauty to worry about capturing it on her phone to recreate later.

Fjord was close at her side, and for several long seconds they stood in silence, soaking in the atmosphere and the relative quiet.

Then Fjord shifted, his hand gently brushing the small of her back. His wide palm felt unnaturally warm, sending an incongruous shiver along her spine. She looked up at him, startled, and found him staring down at her with an intense expression, though she couldn’t make sense of it in the dim, wavering blue light.

“ _Jellyfish!_ ”

Shrieking, squealing children stampeded into the small room, rushing up to press their hands and faces against the aquarium glass. The quiet was shattered – Fjord dropped his hand and took a step back. There were only five kids in the room with them, but Jester could hear more out in the tunnel where the shark and schools of fish had awed her just moments before.

“Why are there so many damn kids here all of a sudden?” Fjord muttered, gaze darting around the room.

“I – I think there’s a birthday party or something. I saw a kid with a birthday girl ribbon a while ago.” Jester’s heart was hammering wildly and she had to resist the urge to press her hand against her chest. She hoped Fjord couldn’t tell how flustered she was; whatever had just been interrupted, she had clearly misread it – the beauty and the darkness and their physical closeness had made her see and feel things that weren’t there.

“Birthday party. Right.” He shook his head slowly, seeming to talk more to himself than to her. “Of course there would be a birthday party today.”

Three more children torpedoed into the room, squealing about jellyfish and sharks and monsters.

“We should probably keep going,” Jester said. “Before we get, like, totally swarmed.”

“That – that sounds like a good idea. Yes. And we have to get home and bake a cake soon, too.”

Try as she might to enjoy the latter half of the museum as much as the first, Jester was distracted and frazzled. Every brush of her arm against Fjord’s threw her senses into high alert, every look from him a puzzle she wanted to decipher. Her heart was running away with her like they had just met and she was caught up in a silly crush again – but it was more than that. Heavier, deeper, more expansive. It wasn’t just that he was handsome, and there was certainly no mystery of him left to fantasize over.

Fjord was her friend. She knew him when he was laughing so hard he cried. She had seen him nervous and uncertain of himself. She had held him while he bled out on the sidewalk, cleaned and dressed his wound, helped make sure he took his painkillers properly. She knew his hugs were as wonderful as they were rare, and she knew his quiet, frustrated sighs when he studied.

This wasn’t just a crush anymore.

The realization left her feeling like she was drowning, even as they stepped out of the aquarium into the cold sunlight of a winter’s day.


	14. Chapter 14

Jester was glad they got straight to baking when they returned to the apartment – the whole walk home her mind had been spinning and she’d probably babbled ridiculously to Fjord more than once, so being able to focus on mixing ingredients instead of panicking about her feelings was a welcome relief.

That did mean abandoning the plan to use boxed mix, since she needed something more involved to properly distract herself. She waved off Fjord’s questions by insisting they had plenty of time before Beau got home and they could make an extra wonderful cake if they did it from scratch. Fjord did his best to help, but, well… He was semi-inept at baking. Still, she appreciated the effort, especially as they settled back into something resembling normalcy, casually teasing each other and chatting as they worked,

Once the cake pan was filled with batter and slid into the oven, they started tidying up the kitchen (skilled as she was, Jester was also a _very_ messy baker).

“I think we actually managed to time this perfectly,” Fjord said as he wiped down the counter, glancing over at the blinking digital timer on the stove. At some point, he had managed to smear a bit of batter onto his cheek, and it was ridiculously cute and charming and Jester just wanted to kiss it off. She made a concerted effort not to stare.

“Well, yeah, of course,” she said as she piled dishes into the sink. “I’m an expert baker, Fjord – I would _never_ mess up my timing.”

She was so busy trying to focus on chores instead of his cute, messy face that she didn’t notice him move in behind her until he was tickling her armpit. Squealing, she automatically flailed an arm backward to try and shove him off, but he was already darting away, laughing loudly.

“ _Fjord_!”

He only laughed harder at that. “You should see your face right now.”

“You do _not_ want to get in a tickle fight with me, Fjord.” She crossed her arms and tried to look tough, doing her best Beau imitation. “I don’t mean to brag or make you feel bad or anything, but I’m, like, _way_ stronger than you.”

“Yeah, but I’m not worried about it.”

She followed him as he moved into the living room, where he plopped down on the middle of couch, arms draped across the back of it, one foot kicked up on the coffee table, and a shit-eating grin on his face.

There was cake in the oven. It had been a weird day of confusing feelings. And now Fjord was challenging her.

She crossed the room, plopped down onto the couch beside him, and lunged with tickling fingers against his ribs. He yelped, squirming, trying to grab her hands to stop her, and for a moment they were practically slap-fighting as they struggled to fend off each other’s tickle attempts while also trying to slip in strikes against the other. Jester caught him in the back of the knee, earning a full-body jump that actually moved the couch. He landed one on her neck, making her impulsively clamp her cheek and shoulder together, trapping his hand and only making things worse for herself.

Eventually, she captured both his hands in hers. Giggling as he fought to free himself, she said, “I win!”

“Nope,” he grunted, still grinning, “I’m not just out yet.”

He definitely was, though. Despite being a lot bigger than her, he was also a lot weaker, and she knew he wouldn’t break out of her grip unless she let him. But if he wasn’t going to surrender…

“Okay! Have it your way, Fjord.” And then she shoved forward, forcing him onto his back across the couch, his hands pinned to either side of his head. She giggled again as she leaned over him. “ _Now_ do I win?”

He only stared up at her, eyes wide and jaw a little slack, his grin from before completely gone. The apartment had fallen impossibly quiet, and Jester was suddenly hyper-aware of Fjord under her and the weirdness of their trip to the aquarium and the streak of white batter against his green cheek and––

His body tensed and he surged up, squeezing her hands tightly as he pressed his lips against hers. Automatically, she shut her eyes, his warm breath fanning across her face, her pulse pounding in her ears.

Just as suddenly, he pulled back and shoved her away. As he scrambled upright on the couch, he babbled, “Shit, fuck, I’m sorry – that was – I shouldn’t’ve – I’m sorry.” His whole face burned bright.

Jester stared at him, still frozen by the kiss.

The kiss.

 _He_ had kissed _her._

“Fjord…” She edged closer. Her hands and knees were shaking, and she wondered if he was reacting the same way – tried to remember if she had felt his hands tremble when she held them – but all she could focus on were his eyes locked on hers.

She leaned over his legs, one hand on his knee and the other on the armrest behind him, hesitating for a moment before pressing a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. His breath of nervous laughter brushed across her cheek.

“Yeah?” he murmured, voice surprisingly low and rough.

Resisting the urge to hide her face or dissolve into giggles, Jester nodded. She hadn’t moved away from him yet. When he shifted his head to the side, their lips were already almost touching; he only tilted forward the slightest bit to kiss her again.

And it was about then that Jester remembered she had no idea what she was doing.

Her anxiety at the situation resurged with a vengeance and, before she could even think about it, she found herself pulling back and stammering, “Sorry, I just – I’m not – I’ve never actually––”

One of Fjord’s warm hands came up to cradle her cheek, his small smile fond as he said, “I know. You already told me.” He leaned forward again, this time to bump his forehead gently against hers. “We’ll take it slow. Okay?”

In answer, she kissed him.

The simple, chaste kiss lingered for several seconds before Fjord pulled away, only for him to soon capture her lips in another kiss, his hand shifting to cup the back of her head. For a few seconds, his lips moved slowly, softly against hers, and then he was drawing back again. “Is that okay?”

Jester had seen enough kissing in movies to know that this was barely anything, but it still left her frazzled and delighted and overwhelmed and craving. She pressed forward, hands now clutching at his shoulders as she did her best to mimic his kiss.

Once the initial nerves faded, kissing was easy – it felt natural and simple and perfect, and her senses where alive with everything that was Fjord. His warm hand rubbing up and down her back while the other tangled in her hair; the sound of his contented sighs; the sweetness lingering on his lips from when he had sampled the cake batter earlier.

She had lost all sense of time and had no idea how long they had been wrapped up in each other when the tip of his tongue nudged her lower lip. The moan she let out surprised even her and Fjord gripped her tighter, tilting his head as their kiss deepened.

Neither of them heard someone outside the apartment until Beau was kicking the door open and swearing profusely about work. Jester squealed in surprise as she flung herself back from Fjord, losing her balance and falling off the couch, nearly smacking her head off the coffee table. Fjord, for his part, seemed to be as frozen as he was flustered.

“Uh…” Beau took a step back out of the apartment. “I can come back later if you guys are––”

Jester and Fjord started babbling at the same time.

“No, no, that’s totally fine, we’re just––”

“No, come in, we have cake and––”

Beau stared at them as they fumbled through their words – Jester still on the floor, Fjord propped against the arm of the couch – before eventually snorting and shaking her head. “Yeah, sure, you were just hanging out.” She rolled her eyes as she re-entered the apartment and kicked the door shut behind her. “Just do me a favour and try to keep it down if you guys decide to ‘hang out’ again in one of your rooms tonight.”

Fjord sputtered so badly that Jester was half-worried he might actually choke on his own tongue.

Thankfully, they were saved from further discussion by the timer on the stove beeping. Fjord flung himself to his feet and rushed into the kitchen without another word.

The rest of the evening was… awkward. They gathered in the kitchen to eat cake, with Fjord acting unusually silent and Beau smirking at the two of them but, mercifully, not teasing or harassing them about what she had walked in on (yet). It was a Saturday night, which meant Fjord had to work, so after a couple hours of everyone hanging out and trying to act normal, he slipped away to his room to get changed.

“So…” Beau said with a conspiratorial grin once Fjord was out of the kitchen. She leaned closer to Jester and lowered her voice. “You and Fjord finally went for it?”

Jester’s cheeks burned, which was ridiculous – it wasn’t like her interest in Fjord had ever been a secret from Beau. Lifting her chin and trying to look dignified, she said, “Yeah. It’s totally not a big deal, though.”

Beau snorted and looked entirely unconvinced.

After several seconds of false confidence, Jester’s façade wavered. “I mean… it was pretty cool, I guess.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She worried her lip, staring down at the crumbs on her plate. “But I think he’s embarrassed about it now.”

“Jester… Fjord is, like, weirdly shy about this stuff – we’ve both teased him for it.”

Though Beau wasn’t _wrong_ , exactly – Fjord was definitely a very modest person when it came to sex and nudity and that sort of thing – she wasn’t sure it really applied in this instance. It wasn’t like Beau had walked in on them boning; they’d just been kissing.

Maybe he was embarrassed about kissing her. She hadn’t really known was she was doing, after all, and just because _she_ thought she’d gotten the hang of it didn’t mean she was actually any good. He probably had second-hand embarrassment from the whole thing.

The more she thought about it, the more she worried about the fact that they hadn’t actually _talked_ about anything. She knew that she really, really liked Fjord, in a way that went deeper than just a crush, but she wasn’t sure how Fjord felt. What if he had just kissed her because she was available and he was lonely without a girlfriend? What if he had kissed her out of pity?

It was about then that Fjord poked his head into the kitchen. “Uh… I’m gonna head out now.”

“Alright. See ya tomorrow,” Beau said. Then she sent a quick, sidelong glance at Jester, eyebrows raised meaningfully.

“Um… Have a good night?” Her voice sounded too high-pitched and uncertain even to her own ears, and it took considerable will power not to cringe as soon as the words left her mouth.

For a moment, Fjord just stood in the doorway, staring at her. She could feel her cheeks burning under his gaze, and she knew she must have turned a really, really awful shade of purple. Is that what she had been like when he was kissing her? All purple and weird-looking?

He crossed the kitchen in a couple strides, then bent down to press a quick kiss to her cheek before muttering a goodbye and hurrying from the room.

Once the door to the apartment had opened and shut, Beau nudged Jester with her elbow. “See? Nothing to worry about.” She was wearing an incredibly smug grin, but Jester couldn’t find it in her to care.

She had a hard time falling asleep that night.

Sleeplessness wasn’t entirely new to her – she’d had trouble with it a lot when she was younger and spent all her time stuck at home, loneliness and boredom making her mind way too awake. But this was different. This time, she was too excited to sleep, though it was different from other times that anticipation had kept her awake. She wasn’t a child awaiting Christmas, and she wasn’t an eager and nervous teenager preparing to move out of her momma’s house for the first time.

Jester was hyper-aware of how big and empty her bed was in contrast with being tangled up with Fjord on the couch just a few hours earlier. They had only been able to enjoy about fifteen minutes together before Beau had barged in, but tomorrow they would have hours of uninterrupted alone time while Beau was at work.

Would he want to spend the day kissing and cuddling on the couch? Or would he maybe want to join her in her room, where they had way more space in her bed and even less concern about someone walking in on them.

Just the thought made her feel restless and overheated.

She spent the night tossing and turning, fantasizing and worrying, and slipping in and out of sleep. So she was awake when Fjord returned from work around 6am, heard him enter the apartment and walk around as he unwound and got ready for bed. She was pretty sure he had grabbed a snack from the cupboard, and spent several long minutes wrestling with herself as to whether she should go out to the kitchen and see if he was as excited and restless as she was.

But he had just finished a long night of work. He probably wanted to sleep. So she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to him move through the apartment, wondering if he would be bold enough to peek into her room and see if she was awake.

He didn’t. She heard him go into his own room, instead, and had to quell a surge of disappointment. She knew they had all day together, but she wanted to be with him _now_ , not later.

Sleep was even more elusive through the morning.

By the time Jester actually rolled out of bed, Beau had already left for work. She had kinda, sorta done that intentionally, since she wasn’t sure if Beau would be in a good mood or bad mood given the shitty shift she’d had the day before, and she didn’t know if Beau would tease or interrogate her about her plans for the day.

She decided to shower before breakfast. Normally, food came first, but today she was feeling extra self-conscious about her bedhead and BO.

When she entered the kitchen, showered and fully-dressed for the day, Fjord was already sitting at the island counter. He had a cup of coffee and a plate of toast, and his hair was adorably tousled from sleep. He looked up when she walked in; they both froze as their eyes met.

Fjord swallowed his bite of food. “Morning.”

“Hi.” The eagerness that had consumed her while she lay awake in bed vanished, replaced by overwhelming shyness. She hurried across the room to grab waffles from the freezer, popping two into the toaster.

A long stretch of silence passed between them.

“So…” Fjord started. He drummed his fingers on the side of his coffee cup. “How are you feeling?”

She glanced over at him; he had shifted in his seat to study her, and though his gaze was steady and guarded, he was fidgeting. That must have meant he was nervous, too – and he had kissed her goodbye last night.

Maybe his question wasn’t as casual as it sounded.

Standing a little taller, she turned to face him fully. “I’m great, Fjord. You?”

His lips quirked up and he nodded slightly. “I’d say I’m pretty great, too.”

Clasping her hands behind her back, she took a step closer. “Any plans for today?”

“Nothing concrete.”

“Yesterday was pretty fun.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You liked the aquarium?”

“Yeah, but I liked just being in the apartment better.”

That did it. He turned in his seat to face her properly, reaching out one long arm to hook around her waist and draw her toward him. There was no hesitation as he ducked his head and captured her lips in a kiss, and she reciprocated with enthusiasm, throwing her arms around him to hold him closer.

The toaster popping had both of them jolting apart. Then they laughed, foreheads pressed together, arms still around each other.

“So…” Jester said slowly, feeling like her face might split apart from the force of her smile, “does this mean you’re, like… my boyfriend or something?”

His dopey grin only got wider. “I’d very much like that.” He kissed the bridge of her nose, her cheek, her jaw, and finally her mouth, tongue darting out to brush her bottom lip questioningly. Hugging him closer, she parted her lips with a sigh, and quickly forgot about everything else around them.

Her waffles and his toast had gone completely cold by the time they remembered to eat breakfast, but, all things considered, it was a pretty perfect morning.


End file.
